Day: April 6, 2023

Experts at Teagasc have been using life cycle assessment, an internationally-recognised methodology, to calculate the environmental performance of average sheep systems in Ireland and to determine the effect of recommended practices.

Ireland is the largest net exporter of sheepmeat within the European Union, with the sheep sector generating approximately €300 million every year. However, as with all food production systems, sheep systems can have negative environmental effects. The most pressing in the current climate is greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, for which the EU and Ireland have set ambitious reduction targets.

Consumers are also becoming increasingly concerned and conscious of how the food they eat – particularly livestock products – is produced. Their purchasing decisions are influenced by environmental concerns, animal welfare and human health.

To reduce the negative environmental impact of livestock production systems, while meeting global demand and consumer expectations, the sheep sector must identify and adopt practices that are environmentally sustainable, economically viable and socially acceptable.

Emissions from the sheep sector

In the most recently reported year, 2020, Ireland emitted 58,766 kilotonnes (kt) CO2 equivalent, of which more than one-third came from the agricultural sector. The digestion of feed and the release of methane (enteric fermentation) dominates agricultural emissions, contributing 61.4%.

The remaining GHG emissions are predominantly associated with manure and synthetic fertiliser application. Sheep directly emitted 1,065kt CO2 equivalent through the digestion of feed and manure management. The sheep sector is also indirectly responsible for GHG emissions from the use of synthetic fertilisers, fuel and electricity, which are recorded separately.

To avoid the negative impacts of climate change, the European Union has committed to reduce GHG emissions to at least 55% below 1990 levels by 2030. To achieve this target, the Irish agricultural sector has been given a 2030 GHG reduction target of 25% compared with 2018 levels. For the agricultural sector to achieve this, adoption of recommended practices and the identification of new technologies are required at farm level.

Life cycle assessment modelling

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an internationally-recognised methodology that has been widely adopted in agriculture to calculate the environmental impact of a farming system and its products. Researchers in Teagasc have developed LCA models for sheep systems in Ireland. These models adopt a cradle-to-farm-gate boundary, meaning all GHG emissions up to the point at which the product (lambs, ewes or wool) leaves the farm are accounted for. On-farm emissions counted and emissions released during the production of farm inputs (i.e. fertilisers, electricity, concentrate feed) are recorded.

By applying this boundary, a LCA can identify the key GHG sources and management practices that have potential to reduce GHG emissions. To determine the GHG reduction potential of proposed management practices and emerging technologies, it is vital to first determine the performance of an average production system. This sets a baseline or starting point to which practices and technologies can be compared.

A LCA of a lowland production system was conducted. Data for flock performance and management practices were obtained from the Teagasc National Farm Survey (Table 1).

Measuring GHG reduction methods

GHG reduction practices and technologies are typically broken into two categories: improve efficiency; and adoption of low-emission technologies. The following GHG reduction practices were investigated:

Substituting nitrate fertiliser with protected urea (from 90% nitrate-based to 100% protected urea);

Incorporation of white clover into swards (reducing synthetic fertiliser requirement by 20%);

Reducing concentrate feeding (103kg/ewe to 50kg/ewe);

Increasing weaning rate (1.39 to 1.5);

Reducing lamb mortality rate (7.9% to 5%).

The GHG intensity of a typical lowland system was calculated as 10.8kg CO2 equivalent/kg live weight, which is lower than the global average of 11.3.

Table 1. Description and performance of an average lowland sheep system

Lowland system

Ewes 140

Stocking rate (ewes/ha) 7.8

N fertiliser (kg N/ha) 73

Lambing period March

Replacement rate (%) 25

Weaning rate (lambs/ewes) 1.39

Concentrate (kg/ewes) 103

Carcass output (kg/ha) 237

Methane contributed two-thirds (66%) of total GHG emissions, predominantly sourced from the digestion of feed (enteric fermentation). Nitrous oxide from fertiliser application, managed manure and manure excreted during grazing contributed a further 19% of total GHG emissions. The remaining 15% of total GHG emissions were sourced from the production of concentrate feed, fertiliser and the consumption of fossil fuels (diesel).

Improving the efficiency of a system typically reduces GHG emissions per unit output. However, there are mixed effects when assessing total emissions. This is the case for improving mortality and weaning rate. Both measures reduced the GHG intensity – by 2.2% and 4.9%, respectively – but total emissions remained unchanged. This was due to the greater number of animals in the system because more live lambs were weaned per ewe. As a result, reducing mortality and increasing weaning rate increased live weight sold by 3.0% and 7.4%, respectively.

Conversely, when you look at fertiliser-related strategies, improving soil fertility and incorporating clover into swards reduced the quantity of nitrogen fertiliser needed to grow the same quantity of forage. As a result, both total GHG emissions and GHG emission intensity reduced by 2.0% and 2.4%, respectively, while maintaining output.

Similarly, the adoption of low-emission technologies such as protected urea reduced total GHG emissions and GHG intensity by 5.0% and 2.4%, respectively. Protected urea has significantly lower GHG emissions per kg N applied in comparison with nitrate-based fertilisers and also significantly lower ammonia emissions than straight urea.

Research Officer Jonathan Herron said: “The production and distribution of concentrate feed typically results in greater GHG emissions per kilogram than the same quantity of well-managed fresh grass. To meet energy requirements, livestock forage intake increases when concentrate feeding rate is reduced.”

Consequently, when land area and yield is fixed, stocking rate and output is reduced. This resulted in the reduction of concentrate fed per ewe from 103kg to 50kg to reduce total GHG emissions and GHG intensity by 4.3% and 1.7%, respectively.

Evidence of emissions reduction

The combination of reducing reliance on concentrate feed, the adoption of protected urea, the reduction in N fertiliser - through the incorporation of white clover into swards, and the improvement in mortality and weaning rate reduced total farm GHG emissions by 9.7%. This reduced the GHG intensity of a lowland sheep system from a base of 10.8kg CO2 equivalent/kg live weight to combined 9.6kg CO2 equivalent/kg live weight, while increasing carcass output from 237kg/ha to 255kg/ha. Further development and implementation of low-emission technologies is required to reduce the GHG intensity and total GHG emissions of sheep systems and contribute to the GHG reduction target.

“The Irish sheep sector is starting from a good position,” concluded Jonathan, “where a typical lowland system has lower GHG intensity per kg live weight than the global average. For the Irish agricultural sector to achieve the 25% GHG reduction target set by the national climate action plan, the sheep sector must be proactive in adopting available GHG mitigation strategies.”

Photo of sheep in a field

Emissions reduction

A number of practices and technologies can reduce total farm emissions.

5% reduction of total greenhouse gas emissions when protected urea technology is adopted.

4.3% reduction of total greenhouse gas emissions when land area and yield is fixed and stocking rate and output is reduced, resulting in the reduction of concentrate fed per ewe from 103kg to 50kg.

2% reduction of total greenhouse gas emissions through improved soil fertility and by incorporating clover into swards to reduce the quantity of N fertiliser needed.

9.7% reduction of total farm greenhouse gas emissions through a combination of reducing reliance on concentrate feed, the adoption of protected urea, the reduction in N fertiliser through the incorporation of white clover into swards, and the improvement in mortality and weaning rate.

Source: EMM/ The Agriculture and Food Development Authority

The Swedish government will follow a court decision and refuse Trkiye's request for the extradition of a terror suspect, local media reported on Thursday.

Trkiye was seeking the extradition of a man in his 50s accused of involvement in terrorist acts, according to the Swedish news agency TT.

The Swedish Supreme Court rejected the request last November since the suspect is a Swedish citizen.

During a meeting last week, the Swedish Cabinet decided it will comply with the court's order and refuse Ankara's request, the report added.

*Writing by Nur Asena Erturk in Ankara

Source: Anadolu Agency

Though 29 years have passed since the Rwandan genocide that killed about 800,000 people in 100 days, survivors still suffer the traumatic experience.

Activist Consolee Nishimwe, who was 14 years old when the genocide began, told Anadolu that the ideological basis that made the genocide possible in the small East African nation was laid during its colonization under Belgium.

"Tutsis and Hutus were social classes. When they came, they had to switch what they didn't divide and conquer. Now, what was social classes became ethnicity," Nishimwe said.

According to Nishimwe, the Belgian colonizers worked to separate the two groups as different races, taking biological measurements to solidify their thesis and documenting the membership of individuals to make it official.

"They had to ... measure the nose and the height and, and then, they would say these are Hutus and these are Tutsis. And then, they issue ID card."

The division made its mark on Rwandan society, from education to the media.

As a Tutsi, Nishimwe said she was subjected to discrimination by her teachers in primary school, while broadcaster Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) was used as a propaganda machine to spread hatred among extremist Hutus.

The RTLM radio was founded by extremist Hutus in 1993 and made provocative broadcasts until 1994, the that the genocide began, she said.

Journalists were "just making fun of Tutsis and saying you are cockroaches," she explained. Such terms "were used a lot through the radio," she said, adding that it was horrible experience to hear them as a child.

RTLM's broadcasts played a central role in the ensuing genocide, igniting one of the bloodiest in history, Nishimwe said.

Rape used as a weapon

The genocide, in which more than 1 million people were killed, targeted the minority Tutsis after the death of the country's Hutu president at the time, Juvenal Habyarimana, and his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira, also a Hutu, when their plane was downed by a rocket attack on April 6, 1994.

Hutu extremists used the incident "as a way of saying Tutsis murdered him (Habyarimana), which was not the case because already a genocide was well-planned," added the activist.

"Immediately, we had to go into hiding."

Nishimwe lost her father and three younger brothers in the mass killings that followed. Today, she only has a few of her family members on her mother's side.

"We lost many people and our family. Rape was used as a weapon in the genocide. I was raped and as a result, I am living with HIV," she said.

She now lives in New York, where she moved in 2001 and wrote a book, titled "Tested To The Limit," about her experiences.

"I am not afraid (to return to Rwanda)," she said, noting that the barriers to her return had been emotional rather than physical, to be able to "face everything" in her country.

Killing lists

Stephen Rapp, a lawyer and former US ambassador for war crimes, said that more than 70% of Tutsis were killed in the genocide.

The evidence was so strong that, after several hearings in 2006, the appeals chamber decided the incident should be called genocide without further proof, Rapp said.

Canadian general and commander of the UN Rwanda Support Mission Force, Gen. Romeo Dallaire, sent a message to New York three to four months before the genocide to say that extremists were planning to "kill" in Rwanda, he said.

Before the genocide, extremists made "lists of moderate Hutus and Tutsis that would be the first to die," he said, underlining that this made it very clear that there would be a genocide.

In 2018, the UN General Assembly designated April 7 as the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The International Criminal Court of Rwanda, tried the perpetrators of the genocide, but has been criticized for its inability to punish them.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The US Treasury Department said Thursday that cybercriminals and ransomware attackers are using decentralized finance (DeFi) services to transfer and launder their illicit proceeds.

Such actors are able to exploit vulnerabilities since many DeFi services that have anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism obligations fail to implement them, the department said in a statement after publishing its 2023 DeFi Illicit Finance Risk Assessment.

"Risk assessments play a foundational role in promoting understanding of the illicit finance risk environment and more effectively protecting the integrity of the U.S. financial system," said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson.

"Our assessment finds that illicit actors, including criminals, scammers, and North Korean cyber actors are using DeFi services in the process of laundering illicit funds," he added.

The official also advised private sector to use the findings of Treasury's assessment to inform their own risk mitigation strategies to prevent illicit actors from abusing DeFi services.

Becoming a popular concept in recent years, DeFi includes financial instruments without using traditional intermediaries such as banks, exchanges and brokerages.

They can offer alternative payment systems by using blockchain, smart contracts and cryptocurrencies.

Source: Anadolu Agency

A helicopter carrying tourists has crashed in the Ha Long Bay area of northeast Vietnam, killing at least two people and leaving three others missing, the country's Ministry of Defense said.

The ministry said in a statement issued late Wednesday that all the four tourists onboard were Vietnamese nationals.

The Bell-505 helicopter took off from Tuan Chau Island in Quang Ninh Province at 4:56 p.m. local time (0956GMT), but lost contact with air traffic control at 5:15 p.m. (1015GMT) on Wednesday.

The helicopter owned by the Northern Viet Nam Helicopter Company was being piloted by a colonel.

Rescuers have so fat found two bodies and debris believed to be from the helicopter at the edge of the shore, the local daily Viet Nam News reported.

The search for the three missing people is currently underway.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Trkiye's largest warship TCG Anadolu will be delivered to the country's navy on Monday, a top official said.

On Thursday, a signing ceremony was held for the construction of three new ships within the scope of the MILGEM Project for the Naval Forces carried out by the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB).

Ismail Demir, the head of Trkiye's Defense Industries Presidency (SSB), said at the ceremony that the TCG Anadolu will be delivered to the Naval Forces Command with a ceremony on Monday.

Demir stated that they aim to complete the integration of Turkish combat drone Bayraktar TB3 into TCG Anadolu this year.

He said Trkiye's indigenous aircraft Hurjet is also planned to be used on the ship.

Demir added that it is too early to talk about the deployment of another Turkish combat drone Anka-3 to the ship.

The TCG Anadolu ship, produced within the scope of the Multi-Purpose Amphibious Assault Ship Project, will be able to transfer at least a battalion-sized force to the designated location with its own logistics support, without the need for home base support.

TCG Anadolu will carry four mechanized, two air-cushioned and two personnel removal vehicles, as well as aircraft, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles.

With a length of 231 meters (some 758 feet) and a width of 32 meters (105 feet), the full load displacement equals to some 27,000 tons.

TCG Anadolu will be an important power multiplier for the Turkish navy, especially with the armed unmanned aerial vehicles (SIHA) to be deployed on it.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Anadolu Agency, founded on April 6, 1920, amid the Turkish War of Independence, at the directive of Turkish Republic founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk with the aim of bringing "the voice of Anatolia to the world," has been providing high-quality written and visual content to the national and international public for 103 years.

Established 17 days before the opening of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, or parliament, Anadolu holds a special place in the history of the republic.

The establishment of Anadolu took place during a difficult period that could be called the turning point of Trkiye's national struggle.

Yuns Nadi Abalioglu and Halide Edip Adivar, two intellectuals who set out for Trkiye's Anatolian heartland to take part in the national struggle, discussed the issue of establishing a news agency as soon as they arrived in Ankara - the republic's future capital - during a break in a long train journey.

Recounting the event, Nadi said that on March 31, 1920, on way to Ankara from Istanbul, he stopped at a train station in Geyve, northeastern Trkiye. It was his fourth day of travel.

"Edip and his friends had also reached Geyve and joined them to continue the journey onward. We started a discussion in which Edip suggested the need for a news organization to tell Anatolia's truthful stories to the world," says Nadi's memoirs.

"Initially, there was debate over whether to bring out a publication or start a news agency. But, ultimately after a discussion, we agreed on a news agency and discussed the possibilities of various names like Turkish Agency, Ankara Agency, or Anadolu (Anatolia) Agency," he explained.

Nadi added: "It is indeed Anatolia which will save this country, this nation. It was decided then, it would be Anadolu Agency.' Thus, the idea conceived at the train station became a reality after they reached Ankara, and they never looked back.

On April 1, 1920, the group reached Ankara. Nadi records that on the evening of April 4 or 5, after dinner they raised the need for a news agency at a meeting at Ziraat Mekteb, the military headquarters of Mustafa Kemal Pasha (later Ataturk), which now houses the state weather service. Pasha readily agreed.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) not only announced the establishment of Anadolu with a historical circular he sent to the whole country but also pointed to the importance of announcing the nation's struggle across the world.

The circular he signed on the agency's establishment reads as follows:

"After the fortress of Islam, the Ottoman Empire's center Istanbul fell into the hands of the enemy, our nation and our country are faced with a great threat. All of Anatolia and Rumelia (former Ottoman possessions in the Balkans) are now engaged in a sacred struggle. During this hardship, Muslims in our lands should be able to reach the truest news locally and internationally, and for that reason, an institution called Anadolu Agency has been founded with the most senior and expert names under the directorate of a council."

On the agency's duties, he said it would provide news and information and would possibly also disseminate official decrees of the representative council. Its news items would be put up on designated roads, streets, and centers, but more importantly, they would be sent to all provinces, including the farthest corners of all villages, he said.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) also emphasized that it was not just news, but factual news that had to be disseminated. When he said the news should be spread with the possible fastest means, he also meant to use all resources which news agencies across the world were using. He established the obligation to provide news that has all the essential elements - truth, exactitude, and objectivity - and should reach the people as quickly as possible.

Anadolu starts its news operations

After the announcement, Anadolu began its operations on April 12, 1920, in a room at the Ziraat Mektebi headquarters.

"One of the long and narrow rooms in the quarters was given to us, and all there was were shelves, a chair, two tables, and an old typewriter," Edip wrote in her memoirs.

The office was later moved to the basement of a high school and then to a two-story building in Ankara's Samanpazari district. All the news was produced with the same typewriter that Mustafa Kemal had found for Halide Edip at the Ottoman Bank.

In its first bulletin, the situation in the country was laid out, and within this framework, the purpose of the establishment of Anadolu was given.

The bulletin stressed the importance of the distribution of agency bulletins, while the need for the establishment of a network for the distribution of these bulletins and its regular operation was emphasized.

The first bulletin contained news from both home and abroad.

The agency's historic first bulletin read as follows:

"The center of our state has fallen into enemy hands. While Anatolia and Rumelia are on the move to join this national struggle with determination, it is incumbent upon us to make sure that our brothers in faith and country are up to date with the most accurate news and information. For that reason, Anadolu Agency starts its work, beginning today.

'Everyone has the right to know, access, and read stories and news about what's happening around them. Thus, we have created special task forces which will bring you the news, put it up on the doors of telegraph offices, and also publish and distribute it if there are enough resources, and take it to the furthest points of our provinces and villages. In this task, we also ask for our people's help and support. Having said that, here is what has recently happened …'

Initially, it was decided to publish at least two bulletins per day, and great attention was paid to delivering Anadolu's news nationwide.

Anadolu, with its establishment announced to the whole country by official declarations, was intended to inform the public about the reasons, direction of developments, and other elements of the national struggle for independence in Anatolia to illuminate people with the most accurate domestic and foreign news.

Mustafa Kemal was also closely interested in the functioning of Anadolu throughout the country, and for this purpose not only announced the establishment of the agency but also wrote various correspondence, especially on the issue of delivering agency bulletins.

In a circular to the Anatolian Telegraph Center on April 18, 1920, Mustafa Kemal called any neglect in delivering agency bulletins "a crime against the homeland."

"We are receiving complaints that Anadolu Agency bulletins have not been spread or sent to some places. At this time, when Anatolia has lost all means of communication with the outside, we undoubtedly consider that this service, undertaken so that no members of the nation are left unaware, will also be accepted and strengthened by all our telegraph operators, and we want it known that negligence in this regard will constitute a crime against the motherland."

Anadolu becomes voice of national struggle

The establishment of the agency stirred great excitement in Anatolia, which was curious about the developments related to the national struggle, the new Ankara government, and above all wanted independence.

Telegraphs congratulating the agency flowed to Ankara from all corners of the country. These messages said the people were ready to provide all kinds of help in delivering the agency's news everywhere possible.

But there were many challenges. It was not possible to publish and distribute the agency's very first issues in large numbers, which were printed in a small room. The printing press in Ankara was old and frequently broke down. Sometimes the bulletins were printed with a mimeograph, and at times were even handwritten and sent to post offices.

Anadolu bulletins were also regularly sent to troops who were fighting on the front. They were also sent to local newspapers struggling to publish factual news to raise awareness of the resistance among the people, against all oppression and invasion attempts of the Allied forces.

On the orders of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk), the agency's news was also sent to the people of occupied Istanbul and the local media there with utmost secrecy. With the Ankara government's official decrees, important news from abroad, warnings for the public, news from the front, and answers to the Allied forces' propaganda, Anadolu bulletins bridged a gap in the news. It effectively launched and defended a second front in the war.

Besides the two founders and Hamdullah Suphi Bey, the number of staff in the office soon rose to 10.

Anadolu's first director general was Aladdin Bey.

He took over the task on Jan. 1, 1926, and then handed it on to Muvaffak Menemencioglu on Feb. 1, 1931. Faik H. Hozar followed him on Oct. 19, 1944, and he passed the baton to Muvaffak Sunal on June 1, 1946. Following them were Ziya Gevher Etili in 1948-1951, Saim Nuri Uray in 1951-1952, Serif Arzik in 1953-1959, Firuzan F. Tekil in 1959-1960, and Cemal Aygen in 1960-1961.

Erdogan Ulus handed the top post over to Nail Mutlugil in 1961. Munir Berk took the helm in 1963, followed by Atilla Onuk, Izzet Sedes, Aytekin Yildiz, Cevdet Tanyeli, Husamettin Celebi, Behic Eksi, Ceyhan Baytur, Turgay Ucoz, Ekrem Karaismailoglu, Mehmet Akarca, Mehmet Guler, Hilmi Bengi, Kemal Ozturk, Senol Kazanci, and now the agency's current director general, Serdar Karagoz.

Today Karogoz and Anadolu's dedicated, hardworking staff unceasingly continue Anadolu's mission with the same spirit as on day one: keeping the people of the Republic of Trkiye up to date and well informed, and serving as the voice of the republic in every corner of the world.

Source: Anadolu Agency