Alouette van Hove, a Doctoral Research Fellow, Researcher Norbert Pirk, Head Engineer John Hulth, all from Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo visited the Kapiti farm in Kenya in February 2024 to test use of drones to measure the amount of methane emitted from herds of camels, goats, cows and sheep at ILRIs Kapiti farm. The drone equipment came from the state-of-the-art DroneLab@UiO at University of Oslo, and this was the first time drones have been used to measure emmisions from ruminants in an African context.
The team from UiO is participating in groundbreaking research to measure methane emissions using drone equipment. This project focuses on measuring methane emitted from various herds of camels, goats, cows, and sheep at ILRI's Kapiti farm. The aim is to gain a deeper understanding of methane production from livestock, a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. The findings have the potential to develop sustainable strategies for mitigating climate change in the agricultural sector.
The research is a part of the international research project CircAgric-GHG led by the NIBIO Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research with University of Oslo and others as partners. Read more about CircAgric-GHG here: www.circagric.org
The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), is a research institute which works for better lives through livestock in developing countries. ILRI is co-hosted by Kenya and Ethiopia, has 14 offices across Asia and Africa. Read more at: www.ilri.org
Read more about the Drone Infrastructure Lab/DroneLab@UiO.
Read the article:
First use of a drone to measure ruminant methane emissions in Africa, ILRI news, 30.05.2024
See a video of the drone technology and drones from DroneLab@UiO used in the research explained by Norbert Pirk, Researcher at Department of Geosciences, UiO:
Video: Anette Tjomsland Spilling/NIBIO