An assessment of fossil fuel energy use and CO2 emissions from farm field operations using a regional level crop and land use database for Canada

The Canadian Economic and Emissions Model for Agriculture (CEEMA) is considered a potentially useful tool for investigating the impacts of biofuel feedstock production on rural land use. Fossil CO2 emissions from fieldwork in the CEEMA model were upgraded with the Fossil Fuel Farm Fieldwork Energy and Emissions (F4E2) simulation model. There was very close agreement between the two models at the national level, but differences between the two models at the regional scale and among the three major land uses illustrated the need to revise CEEMA. Emission coefficients from the F4E2 model will give the upgraded CEEMA a more realistic response to the energy requirements by specific field operations and to differences between the major forms of land cover (annuals and perennials). The highest fossil fuel CO2 emission intensity for fieldwork in 2001 was in Quebec at 0.19 t{CO2}/ha, followed by Ontario at 0.17 t {CO2}/ha, while the emission intensities were the lowest in Western Canada, at 0.12 t{CO2}/ha. Fossil CO2 emissions from just annual crops in Canada was 0.16 t/ha and the emissions from just harvesting perennial forages was 0.07 t{CO2}/ha. Fieldwork to maintain summerfallow emitted only 0.02 t{CO2}/ha. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.