Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Agricultural Crops and Management Practices: The Impact of the Integrated Crop Emission Mitigation Framework on Greenhouse Gas Reduction

Greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural crops remain a critical challenge for climate change mitigation. This review synthesizes evidence on cropland management interventions and global N2O mitigation potential. Agricultural practices such as cover cropping, agroforestry, reduced tillage, and diversification show promise in reducing CO2, CH4, and N2O emissions, yet uncertainties in measurement, verification, and socio-economic adoption persist. This review highlights that biochar application reduces N2O emissions by 16.2% (95% CI: 9.8–22.6%) in temperate systems, demonstrating greater consistency compared to no-till agriculture, which shows higher variability (11% reduction, 95% CI: −19% to +1%). Legume-based crop rotations reduce N2O emissions by up to 39% through improved nitrogen efficiency and increase soil organic carbon by up to 18%. However, reductions in synthetic fertilizer use (65% lower in legume vs. cereal systems) can be offset by the effects of biological nitrogen fixation. Optimized nitrogen fertilization, when combined with enhanced-efficiency fertilizers, can reduce N2O emissions by 55–64%. Complementing this, global-scale analysis underscores the dominant role of optimized nitrogen fertilization in curbing N2O emissions while sustaining yields. To bridge gaps between practice-level interventions and global emission dynamics, this paper introduces the ICEMF, a novel approach combining field-based management strategies with spatially explicit emission modeling. Realistic implementation currently achieves 25–35% of technical potential, but bundled interventions combining financial incentives, training, and institutional support can increase adoption to 40–60%, demonstrating ICEMF’s value through integrated, context-adapted approaches. Only peer-reviewed articles published in English between 1997 and 2025 were selected to ensure recent and reliable findings. This review highlights knowledge gaps, evaluates policy and technical trade-offs, and proposes ICEMF as a pathway toward scalable and adaptive mitigation strategies in agriculture.