Makda Mahrai (MSc Student)
Makda Mahrai is an MSc candidate in pasture Science at the University of Pretoria. She has obtained her BSc in Animal Sciences from the University of Asmara and worked as a laboratory technician at the National Veterinary Laboratory, Ministry of Agriculture, Eritrea and quarantine officer in Asmara International Airport before receiving her BSc Hons in crop science from the University of Pretoria. She is highly interested in improving the quality of pastures for animals. Currently she is working on a project aiming to minimize methane production from ruminants by improving the quality of pastures to find a solution for global warming.
Environmental pollution is one of the main issues of the world. The reason for that is global warming which is resulting in a constant increase in temperature. Though there are many reasons for global warming, agricultural wastes, fertilizers, the processing of industrial and domestic waste and sewage are some of the common causes of environmental pollution. A by-product of digestion in ruminants (which includes cows, goats, and sheep) is the greenhouse gas, methane. Methane is one of the major greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and, together with the other greenhouse gases, it traps some of the sun’s rays and causes global warming. It is estimated that around 100 million tonnes of methane are emitted each year and emission from livestock is the second-largest human-made methane source after rice agriculture. This is a huge problem both to the environment and loss to the farmer since methane is feed not converted to meat or milk. The potential impact of enteric methane and nitrogen fertilizer on future global warming, and the variation in enteric methane production from different pastures have led to this study.