This dissertation analyzes the economic potential of agriculture to participate ingreenhouse gas emission mitigation efforts. Major agricultural mitigation strategies areincluded simultaneously to capture interactions. Results indicate that agriculture'scontribution to emission reduction may be substantial, but not sufficient to fulfill therequirements of the Kyoto Protocol, which are estimated to be in the neighborhood of700 million metric tons (MMT) of carbon equivalents by the year 2010. Even underextreme economic incentives, the annual emission reduction potential from U.S.agriculture does not exceed 300 MMT if including all carbon dioxide related strategies,or 400 MMT if also including carbon equivalent emission reductions of methane andnitrous oxide related strategies.Production of biomass feedstock for power plants, i.e. switch grass, becomes thedominating mitigation strategy for carbon saving incentives of $80 per ton of carbonequivalent and above. Lower incentives between $5 and $80 per metric ton of carbonequivalent lead to a complex mixture of various mitigation strategies involving reducedivfertilization, tillage, and irrigation; increased afforestation; and improved liquid manuremanagement. In addition to net emission reductions between 25 and 70 MMT of carbonequivalents, low carbon incentives involve substantial environmental gains through lesserosion and less nitrogen pollution.Empirical results from this dissertation show the importance of accounting forinterdependencies among mitigation strategies. The savings potential of mitigationstrategies examined individually may be considerably higher than it is under a jointanalysis. The findings also provide support for a new breed of combined environmentaland farm policy, which would replace costly individual programs aimed at variousenvironmental goals or to provide for fair farm incomes.
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