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The Agricultural Particulate Matter Emissions Indicator (APMEI) has been developed to estimate Particulate Matter (PM) emissions from agriculture in Canada and to assess potential emission-reduction measures. The APMEI estimates atmospheric emissions of primary PM from wind erosion, land preparation, crop harvesting, fertilizer and chemical application, crop residue burning, grain handling, pollen, animal feeding operations and animal carcass burning for the Census years from 1981 to 2011. The APMEI assessed both the state and the trend of emissions of primary PM resulting from Canadian agricultural activities. Total PM emissions from agricultural sources in Canada decreased from 1981 to 2011, with a decline of 63% for TSP, 58% for PM10 and 61% for PM 2.5 . In 2011, Canadian agricultural PM emissions were 3066 kt for TSP, 1190 kt for PM 10 and 276 kt for PM 2.5 . Wind erosion, land preparation and crop harvesting were the principal sources of particulate emissions from cultivated cropland. Wind erosion alone generated about half of the total agricultural PM emissions in Canada. Land preparation was the second largest source of agricultural PM emissions, accounting for 17% to 36% of the total depending on the PM classes, and crop harvesting contributed 10% of the total PM emissions. Since there is a seasonal pattern to the dominant sources of PM emissions, the monthly emissions from the three main agricultural sources were quantified and are presented for 2011.

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Particulate matter (PM) has long been recognized as an air pollutant due to its adverse health and environmental impacts. As emission of PM from agricultural operations is an emerging air quality issue, the Agricultural Particulate Matter Emissions Indicator (APMEI) has been developed to estimate the primary PM contribution to the atmosphere from agricultural operations on Census years and to assess the impact of practices adopted to mitigate these emissions at the soil landscape polygon scale as part of the agri-environmental indicator report series produced by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. In the APMEI, PM emissions from animal feeding operations, wind erosion, land preparation, crop harvest, fertilizer and chemical application, grain handling, and pollen were calculated and compared for the Census years of . In this study, we present the results for PM 10 and PM 2.5 , which exclude chemical application and pollen sources as they only contribute to total suspended particles. In 2006, PM emissions from agricultural operations were estimated to be 652.6 kt for PM 10 and 158.1 kt for PM 2.5 . PM emissions from wind erosion and land preparation account for most of PM emissions from agricultural operations in Canada, contributing 82% of PM 10 and 76% of PM 2.5 in 2006. Results from the APMEI show a strong reduction in PM emissions from agricultural operations between 1981 and 2006, with a decrease of 40% (442.8 kt) for PM 10 and 47% (137.7 kt) for PM 2.5 . This emission reduction is mainly attributed to the adoption of conservation tillage and no-till practices and the reduction in the area of summerfallow land.Implications: Increasing sustainability in agriculture often means adapting management practices to have a beneficial impact on the environment while maintaining or increasing production and economic benefits. We developed an inventory of primary PM emissions from agriculture in Canada to better quantify the apportionment, spatial distribution, and trends for Census years 1981-2006. We found major reductions of 40% in PM 10 and 47% in PM 2.5 emissions over the 25-yr period as a co-benefit of increasing carbon sequestration in agricultural soils. Indeed, farmers adopted conservation tillage/no-till practices, increased usage of cover crops, and reduced summerfallow, in order to increase soil organic matter and reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which also reduced primary PM emissions, although the agricultural production increased over the period.

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