“Soil Carbon Sequestration is the process of transferring carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the soil through crop residues and other organic solids, and in a form that is not immediately reemitted”. This would go a long way in offsetting the carbon emissions from fossil fuels and at the same time improving the soil quality and agricultural productivity in the long run. This can be accomplished by management systems that would add large amounts of biomass to soil, do not disturb the soil, improve its structure, conserve soil and water and enhance the activity of organisms in the soil. Eg: Continuous no-till crop production.
Most of the efforts and focus related to reducing the carbon footprint of agriculture has been on the livestock-related methane emissions and nitrous oxide emissions from fertilized fields or the potential to generate energy from biofuels and the anaerobic digestion of animal excreta. But one big area that has not received enough attention is related to soil carbon (mainly through sequestration). According to IPCC, the soil carbon sequestration represents around 89% of the potential for mitigation of the green house gas emissions by agriculture. Around 10% of the carbon emissions due to human activity could be attributed to agriculture. But as different from the carbon emissions from fossil fuels ,soil carbon store has the potential to be recreated by adopting suitable farming practices. This has the potential to remove substantial quantities of carbon from the atmosphere at least for the next 20 years. Moreover, the raise in the soil carbon levels would contribute significantly to climate adaptation by improving soil structure and quality. This would go a long way in reducing the impacts of flooding, droughts and desertification thus leading to improvements in global food and water security.
Sources:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/aex-fact/pdf/0510.pdf
http://www.soilassociation.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=BVTfaXnaQYc%3D&tabid=574
Most of the efforts and focus related to reducing the carbon footprint of agriculture has been on the livestock-related methane emissions and nitrous oxide emissions from fertilized fields or the potential to generate energy from biofuels and the anaerobic digestion of animal excreta. But one big area that has not received enough attention is related to soil carbon (mainly through sequestration). According to IPCC, the soil carbon sequestration represents around 89% of the potential for mitigation of the green house gas emissions by agriculture. Around 10% of the carbon emissions due to human activity could be attributed to agriculture. But as different from the carbon emissions from fossil fuels ,soil carbon store has the potential to be recreated by adopting suitable farming practices. This has the potential to remove substantial quantities of carbon from the atmosphere at least for the next 20 years. Moreover, the raise in the soil carbon levels would contribute significantly to climate adaptation by improving soil structure and quality. This would go a long way in reducing the impacts of flooding, droughts and desertification thus leading to improvements in global food and water security.
Sources:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/aex-fact/pdf/0510.pdf
http://www.soilassociation.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=BVTfaXnaQYc%3D&tabid=574
During the talk in the GRIT lecture, Dr Sonde of Thermax said that the Indian soil is not conducive for carbon sequestration. You may want to look into that aspect too(geology)
ReplyDelete