Creative Commons

This dissertation was written as part of the MSc in Environmental Management and Sustainability at the International Hellenic University. The last decades, human activities have a major impact on climate change and the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) have been increased. GHG are to agriculture sector as it is one of the main contributors. Among agriculture activities, livestock farming produces high levels of GHGs emissions and is responsible for other environmental impacts (Rotz, 2017). Globally, livestock sector has increased its productivity the last decades due to high demand for meat and dairy products for consumption (Sakadevan & Nguyen, 2017).it is estimated that the next decade, the demand for livestock products would increase significantly. The negative side of this increasing demand can be observed in the impacts on climate through changes in land use, feed production, animal production, manure processing and transport (McMichael et al., 2007). Livestock sector’s global emissions account for 5%–18% of global GHG emissions, and thus may increase land degradation, air and water pollution and loss of biodiversity. GHG emissions which are produced from livestock production and operations have a potential to be reduced with various measures, technologies and practices. Mitigation measures can be applied so that livestock impacts can be eliminated, for example, improvements in manure management, higher quality of feed and animal health, efficient use of manure and fertilizers.