Impact of Animal Nutrition on Global Warming

Abstract

Nutrition is defined as the interrelated steps by which a living organism assimilates food and uses it for growth, tissue repairs and replacement. There is a strong relationship between excessive nitrogen in the atmosphere and the location of intensive farm animal production areas. Upward trend in animal production has led to increasing pressure on pasture; consequently there is greater competition for available forage and compaction of the soil. Single stomach animals like chicken excretes about 100g daily, and 36kg yearly faecal nitrogen. As various experts have identified, reducing GHG emissions is both urgent and critical. As the largest anthropogenisers of land and responsible for more GHG emissions than transportation, the animal production sector must be held accountable for its many deleterious impacts, and changes in animal agricultural practices must be achieved. Improving animal nutrition is therefore expedient to reduce urinary and faecal nitrogen which in turn is proportionally reduces Nitrogen emission into the air.