Estimation of Carbon Footprint of Three Broiler Houses Operated in Bursa Region

Increasing the population in Turkey, accordingly, the increase in the need for animal-derived protein, destruction of agricultural lands, demand continous input of product yield for reasons such as intensive operation have gained widespread. As a consequence of intensive management system where more production is made in the unit area, negative enviromental impacts are increasing and contribute to global warming with gas emissions. Methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and diazot oxide (N2O) are the main greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Carbon footprint is the measure of the damage caused by human activities to the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases that are measured in units of carbon dioxide. The most common method used in calculating carbon footprint are Tier 1-2-3 approaches developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The aim of this study is to determine the effect of three different broiler farms in Bursa region on global warming by using Tier 1 method to determine the carbon footprint. At the end of the study, carbon footprint per kg of produced hen meat in monitored broiler houses 1,2 and 3 were calculated as 2.2, 3.4 ve 3 kg CO2 equivalent, respectively