Climate Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

Our Ruminant Methane Assessment (RMA) initiative seeks to expand access to and use of a proven methodology for measuring the impact of technical and management changes on ruminant livestock production and enteric methane emissions.  This will be done by providing a practical tool that enables livestock producers, practitioners and implementers to manage activities that sustainably reduce methane emissions
Our RMA initiative was started in 2017 to operationalize the IPCC Standard AMS-III.BK.  Our successful efforts to standardize ruminant assessment methodology and quantify enteric methane reduction are entering the final stage of application across a broad spectrum of production practices.  We are now seeking to develop licensing arrangements that increase practitioner access to and use of the methodology to measure impact.
The implementation of improved feeds and feeding projects as a means to mitigate ruminant methane emissions has been growing rapidly in Kenya. This is primarily due to the groundbreaking work carried out by RuMeth in 2019 and 2022 under contract with the Kenya Crop and Dairy Marketing Systems (KCDMS) project.  The Government of Kenya is greatly encouraging this approach, as the KCDMS project proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that improving dairy animal nutrition decreases the methane emissions attributable to each liter of milk produced, and leads to substantial increases in milk production
However, projects currently in the startup phase are missing a critical component: a reliable, efficient and accurate method of measuring mitigation results. Implementers of these new projects learned the main lesson; that improved feeding and nutrition for dairy animals increases milk production and reduces the methane per unit of product. Unfortunately, they missed the second point; that an accurate method of measuring both changes in productivity and methane emissions is needed to monitor and report on impact. Instead of using the AMS-III.BK based methodology designed and employed in Kenya by RuMeth, they are using models based on secondary data to capture herd dynamics and the potential impact of change. The problem is that such models are not based on objectively verifiable detail and are only 50% accurate, making any reported results highly suspect.
In addition, an interesting development in ruminant methane measurement during the last three years is the IPCC approval of what animal scientists have known for decades; as an animal ration increases in digestibility the amount of gross energy converted to methane decreases. Prior to 2022 direct methane calculations from ruminants used a gross energy to methane conversion rate of 7.5%, the rate set by the IPCC in 2014 when the UNFCCC approved AMS IIIBK.
However, in late 2022 the IPCC revised their standards to incorporate a sliding scale.  Based on this, as a ration fed to a large ruminant increases digestibility, the amount of gross energy converted to methane decreases significantly. With this finding there are two pathways for reducing methane from ruminant livestock: increase the amount of milk/meat produced, thus reducing the methane per unit of product; or an actual reduction in the amount of methane emitted from an animal, even while increasing productivity. The analytical models employed by the current Kenyan projects are unable to take advantage of this change because they do not incorporate an accurate analysis of the feeds the animals are consuming and can therefore only guess at the actual levels of digestibility present in the individual rations.
In contrast, the RMA has proven to be a practical and effective tool for assessing the productivity of developing country ruminant production systems and the impact of livestock development projects. It has been shown to be adaptable to a wide range of production systems and interventions.  It can be used to: identify the weak links in livestock production systems; calculate the potential impact of technical interventions; and analyze impact in terms of increased production, income and food security, and decreased enteric methane emissions. Furthermore, it is adaptable to varied production systems and interventions, and can be used for a single farm, group of farms, regional production system, or national inventory.
The Government of Kenya (GOK) State Minister for Livestock recognizes the strengths of the RMA, and would like to use it to help evaluate new ruminant methane projects and activities. Even though the RMA has been proven, project financers and implementers would like to see the methodology field tested on the new projects to prove its worth.
To summarize: 
•	RuMeth’s groundbreaking work with KCDMS proved the concept that improved nutrition for dairy cows decreases methane cost per liter of milk produced.
•	New projects and activities are being implemented in Kenya to spread that benefit.
•	New projects and activities are being managed by organizations that do not understand what is required to accurately measure the changes in productivity and methane emissions.
•	New IPCC rulings pave the way for absolute reductions in ruminant methane by improving digestibility of the ration fed.
•	The RMA is highly accurate and can easily be adapted to take into account the new IPCC rules.
•	The Government of Kenya really likes the RMA and would like to apply it  to new projects and activities in Kenya. However, project implementers are skeptical and need a field demonstration to understand the potential.
In conclusion, RuMeth’s successful efforts to standardize ruminant production assessment and quantify enteric methane reduction are currently entering the final stage of application across a broad spectrum of production practices and implementing entities, withdeveloping licensing arrangements to provide practitioners with access to the RMA for managing their activities.  The GOK supports a field demonstration of the RMA to show the potential benefits of using its accuracy to measure impact, manage for results, and incorporate those results in its recently initiated Methane Mitigation Project.

How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

['Reduces GHGs (e.g., projects that reduce sources of GHGs, such as through efficiency or other changes in consumption)']

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

The impact of using RMA products and services falls largely on small-scale producers and their families in rural areas. The relationship between productivity and methane mitigation is clear – increased productivity translates into reduced methane emissions.  The RMA enables managing the delivery of cost-effective extension services whose impact constitutes a win-win-win in rural communities in that increased milk production: increases household income; increases the availability of Animal Source Foods which improves child nutrition; increases the demand for labor provided by women and youth in dairy operations; and reduces Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by improving feed digestibility and making operations more environmentally friendly.
The RMA survey instruments are designed to add tailor-made questions regarding the involvement of women and youth in the survey area.  This enables the client to design specific activities to effectively address inequities and broaden participation.