There has been a further decrease in Scottish agriculture emissions, the latest government figures show, with reductions seen in all three types of greenhouse gases.
The Scottish government's statistics show a decrease in agriculture emissions by 2.9% - or 0.2 MtCO2e - between 2019 and 2020.
This means emissions from the Scottish farming industry have now dropped 14.9 percent since 1990.
The reductions can be seen across all of the three main types of greenhouse gases created by food production: CO2, methane and nitrous oxide.
NFU Scotland said the figures were a 'clear sign' of the farming industry's commitment to meeting its climate change goals.
The union is currently working with the Scottish government on how best to support farms and crofts across the country to reduce their emissions.
NFUS climate change policy manager, Kate Hopper said: “Unlike other industries which may be expecting a bounce back in emissions as they move on from the impacts of Covid, agriculture maintained production in challenging times and kept the nation fed during the pandemic.
“While there is still a lot more work to do to get to net zero, these figures show that with the right future policy support Scottish agriculture can get there.
“Our members have been working hard carrying out carbon audits to identify where improvements can be made, along with their on-farm energy use, switching to renewables, and looking at how to reduce the inputs they use.”
She added: “Going forwards we also need to look at how the UK’s national inventory records GHG emissions. All carbon sequestration is currently recorded against the land use sector, including measures such as tree planting carried out on our farms.
"Farms have huge potential to store carbon, and we would like to see this balanced against our emissions, whilst we continue to produce high quality, sustainable, healthy Scottish food.”
It comes as the Scottish government's recently launched National Test Programme is working towards baselining and more accurate reporting of on farm GHGs.
The programme will also be leading work into what on-farm actions best reduce emissions.
