Due to the EEA, agricultural production across the EU15 contributes >40% of methane emissions and >50% of nitrous oxide emissions. Nitrous oxide is created when nitrogen is converted from fertilization with mineral and farm fertilizers and from N2 fixation in agricultural soil. Organic management runs at a lower nutrient level and can therefore be expected to result in lower nutrient losses. The basic hypothesis of the MIDAIR project is that cost-effective reduction strategies in agriculture must be based on models that take into account carbon and nitrogen flows between all subsystems in agricultural production and include models with regional and farm-specific differences.
MIDAIR aims to develop region- and system-specific, cost-effective GHG reduction strategies for organic and conventional milk production companies in Europe. Gumpenstein is involved in long-term measurements of nitrous oxide measurements on an inner-Alpine crop rotation of dairy farms. These measurements will be carried out in four other production areas (in Northern Europe, in the so-called "cow belt", in the Mediterranean and in "other" temperature areas). The system- and region-specific emission factors are then used for model development.
A field test by BAL Gumpenstein is used for these environmentally relevant measurements, whereby in addition to the nitrous oxide measurements, other parameters such as seepage water are also collected.