The UK Government has set an ambitious target of achieving a national “net-zero” greenhouse gas economy by 2050. Agriculture is arguably placed at the heart of achieving net zero, as it plays a unique role as both a producer of GHG emissions and a sector that has the capacity via land use to capture carbon (C) when managed appropriately, thus reducing the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere. Agriculture’s importance, particularly in a UK-specific perspective, which is also applicable to many other temperate climate nations globally, is that the majority of land use nationwide is allocated to farming. Here, we present a systematic review based on peer-reviewed literature and relevant “grey” reports to address the question “how can the agricultural sector in the UK reduce, or offset, its direct agricultural emissions at the farm level?” We considered the implications of mitigation measures in terms of food security and import reliance, energy, environmental degradation, and value for money. We identified 52 relevant studies covering major foods produced and consumed in the UK. Our findings indicate that many mitigation measures can indeed contribute to net zero through GHG emissions reduction, offsetting, and bioenergy production, pending their uptake by farmers. While the environmental impacts of mitigation measures were covered well within the reviewed literature, corresponding implications regarding energy, food security, and farmer attitudes towards adoption received scant attention. We also provide an open-access, informative, and comprehensive dataset for agri-environment stakeholders and policymakers to identify the most promising mitigation measures. This research is of critical value to researchers, land managers, and policymakers as an interim guideline resource while more quantitative evidence becomes available through the ongoing lab-, field-, and farm-scale trials which will improve the reliability of agricultural sustainability modelling in the future.

英国政府制定了到 2050 年实现国家“净零”温室气体经济的雄心勃勃的目标。农业可以说是实现净零的核心，因为它既是温室气体排放的生产者，又是温室气体排放的重要来源。如果管理得当，该部门有能力通过土地利用捕获碳（C），从而降低大气中二氧化碳（CO ₂ ）的浓度。农业的重要性，特别是从英国特定的角度来看，也适用于全球许多其他温带气候国家，是因为全国大部分土地用途都分配给农业。在此，我们根据同行评审文献和相关“灰色”报告进行系统综述，以解决“英国农业部门如何减少或抵消农场层面的直接农业排放？”的问题。我们考虑了缓解措施对粮食安全和进口依赖、能源、环境退化和资金价值的影响。我们确定了 52 项相关研究，涵盖英国生产和消费的主要食品。我们的研究结果表明，许多缓解措施确实可以通过温室气体减排、抵消和生物能源生产来实现净零排放，但有待农民的采用。虽然所审查的文献充分涵盖了缓解措施对环境的影响，但对能源、粮食安全和农民对采取措施的态度的相应影响却很少受到关注。我们还为农业环境利益相关者和政策制定者提供开放获取、信息丰富且全面的数据集，以确定最有希望的缓解措施。 这项研究作为临时指导资源对研究人员、土地管理者和政策制定者具有至关重要的价值，同时通过正在进行的实验室、现场和农场规模试验可以获得更多定量证据，这将提高农业可持续发展模型的可靠性。未来。