Why does nitrous oxide matter?

This short video features Dr Cecile de Klein explaining how nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas about 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide and lingering in the atmosphere for over a century – is produced in soils. It explains how excess nitrogen from fertilisers, clover or supplementary feed ends up as nitrate or is turned into nitrous oxide by soil microbes.

It also offers practical on-farm approaches that can cut emissions now, including precision placement of fertiliser, lowering stocking rates, optimising fertiliser timing in cropping systems, and even the potential of plantain or new nitrification inhibitors.