study
Agricultural climate targets primarily affect small farms
Dairy cow in the barn of the Köchelstorf agricultural cooperative. The climate-friendly conversion will pose problems for smaller farms. Photo: Jens Büttner/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Agriculture must also improve its climate balance in the coming years and reduce emissions. But the agricultural sector also stores CO2 – experts demand that this should be taken into account.
According to experts, the climate-friendly conversion of agriculture will not be able to shoulder the shoulders of smaller farms in particular.
“Decarbonization will significantly accelerate structural change,” said agricultural expert Christian Janze from the economic consulting firm Ernst & Young (EY) on Wednesday at the presentation of the economic barometer for agribusiness in Germany 2022. Many companies could no longer and did not want to raise the necessary investments. The study was created by EY and the University of Göttingen.
Agriculture also binds a lot of CO2
Reducing emissions of the greenhouse gas CO2 in agriculture is extremely important for global climate goals, said Janze. Globally, energy consumption in industry is responsible for 24 percent of all CO2 emissions worldwide. Then comes agriculture and forestry with a share of 19 percent. In Germany, animal husbandry and fertilization account for the largest share of CO2 emissions from agriculture. On the other hand, a lot of CO2 is bound in agriculture. So far, however, this important detail has hardly ever appeared in any balance sheet on agriculture. “That would have to be taken into account more clearly in a fair consideration,” said Janze.
In order to reduce CO2 emissions in agriculture, legal incentives are necessary, said Janze. Subsidies should be aimed at long-term measures to reduce CO2, for example by binding greenhouse gases by renaturing peatlands or converting arable land to grassland. A new payment system is also necessary that pays for the storage of CO2 in the soil.
The demand for products from the German agricultural engineering industry has benefited from climate protection. According to estimates by the Association of German Machine and Plant Manufacturers, sales rose by 13.8 percent to 10.3 billion euros. According to the study, agricultural businesses in Germany and abroad are investing heavily in environmentally and climate-friendly machines. In Germany, this mainly applies to fertilizer application and crop protection technology.
According to an estimate in the study, sales in the agricultural and food industry in Germany grew by 2.1 percent to 244.8 billion euros in 2021. As a result, the food industry alone saw a 1 percent drop in sales to 183.7 billion euros. In particular, domestic sales fell by around 4 percent compared to 2020. Export increased by 5 percent. The number of employees rose by 3 percent to almost 634,000.
Turnover in the meat industry fell
In the meat industry, the number of employees grew by an estimated 20 percent to 154,110, which was due to the ban on work contracts in the meat industry at the beginning of last year. However, according to the study, sales in the German meat industry fell again from 44.5 to 40.3 billion euros, which is a drop of 9 percent. Exports fell even more sharply than in the previous year by 10.8 percent to 9.4 billion euros – a consequence of trade restrictions due to African swine fever (ASF)
The dairy industry, on the other hand, is going into 2022 in a positive mood, it said: Demand from Asia and other markets is high. The dairy industry was able to increase its annual turnover by 2.9 percent to a record value of 30 billion euros last year. Export earnings increased by 4.7 percent to 10 billion euros. Around 45,500 people work in dairies in Germany with more than 20 employees.