Carbon Management in Agriculture for mitigating greenhouse effect Printed, 2012 Correct citation: A.K. Singh, S.V. Ngachan, G.C. Munda, K.P. Mohapatra, B.U. Choudhury, Anup Das, Ch. Srinivasa Rao, D.P. Patel, D.J. Rajkhowa, Ramkrushna, G.I. and A.S. Panwar. 2012. Carbon Management in Agriculture for Mitigating Greenhouse Effect. ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam-793 103, Meghalaya, India. pp 377 Editors A.K. Singh, Deputy Director General, Division of Natural Resource Management, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Krishi Anusandhan Bhavan-II, ICAR, Pusa Campus, New Delhi- 110012 S.V. Ngachan, Director, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya-793103 G.C. Munda, Head, Division of Natural Resource Management, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya- 793103 K.P. Mohapatra, Senior Scientist (Forestry), Division of Natural Resource Management, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya-793103 B.U. Choudhury, Senior Scientist (Soil Physics), Division of Natural Resource Management, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya-793103 Anup Das, Senior Scientist (Agronomy), Division of Natural Resource Management, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya-793103 Ch. Srinivasa Rao, Principal Scientist (Soil Science), Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh-500 059 D.P. Patel, Senior Scientist (Plant Physiology), Division of Natural Resource Management, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya-793103 D.J. Rajkhowa, Principal Scientist (Agronomy), Division of Natural Resource Management, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya-793103 Ramkrushna G.I., Scientist (Agronomy), Division of Natural Resource Management, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya-793103 A.S. Panwar, Principal Scientist (Agronomy), Division of Natural Resource Management, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya-793103 Copy right: © ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya-793 103. All rights reserved, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN : 13- 978-81-920769-2-8 Published By: The Director, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya-793 103 Phone: 0364-2570257, Fax: 0364-2570363 Designed and printed by print21, Ambikagirinagar, R.G.Baruah Road, Guwahati - 781 024 ÷Ê⁄Uà ‚⁄U∑§Ê⁄U ∑ΧÁ· •ŸÈ‚¢œÊŸ •ı⁄U Á‡ÊˇÊÊ Áfl÷ʪ ∞fl¢ ÷Ê⁄UÃËÿ ∑ΧÁ· •ŸÈ‚¢œÊŸ ¬Á⁄U·Œ ∑ΧÁ· ◊¢òÊÊ‹ÿ, ∑ΧÁ· ÷flŸ, Ÿß¸ ÁŒÀ‹Ë 110 001 GOVERNMENT OF INDIA Mk- ,l- v¸;iu DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH & EDUCATION Lkfpo ,oa egkfuns’kd AND Dr. S. AYYAPPAN INDIAN COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, KRISHI BHAVAN, NEW DELHI 110 001 Secretary & Director General Tel: 23382629, 23386711 Fax: 91-11-23384773 E-mail : [email protected] FOREWORD Global climate change has already manifested itself through increase in global temperature by 0.6 to 0.8°C during the 20th Century and increase in frequency of extreme events like very high intensity precipitation, frequent droughts, heat waves etc. Carbon in the form of CH4 and CO2 is the major player in contributing to this global climatic shift. Soil being one of the potential sinks for global carbon stock (3.5%), soil carbon management holds the key for developing effective adaptation strategy that would sustain the agricultural production, environmental health vis-à-vis food security and livelihood.Adoption of appropriate package of practices, cropping systems, restoration of degraded lands, agroforestry interventions, conservation agriculture, integrated nutrient management etc. has great potential to sequester carbon and reduce the emission of methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Carbon sequestration potential through adoption of recommended package of practices alone on agricultural soils is about 6 to 7 Tg/year. Novel approaches like Biochar production and application to soil would help in sequestering carbon and improvement in soil physical health. Further, the sizeable livestock population (485 million) in India needs special attention where concerted efforts have to be made on efficient maintenance level, quantity and quality of feed etc. for livestock so that methane emission is reduced by the bovine population (283 million) in particular. This also demands adequate measures such as proper blend of protein rich and crude fibre diets to contain the emission of methane and other GHGs from the livestock sector. Admittedly, comprehensive information on carbon management in agriculture is meager and compilation of scientific information on this burning issue is a great challenge. Realizing the need to address all climate related issues on priority, concerted efforts were made and proactive initiatives were taken up by the Indian Council ofAgricultural Research through the implementation of National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA), a mega research programme in the XI Plan. The editors and contributors deserve appreciation for bringing out this publication on “Carbon Management in Agriculture for Mitigating Greenhouse Effect”. The entire team has done a commendable work in addressing all the issues in a very holistic manner cutting across the disciplinary boundaries. I am confident that this publication will be very useful for climate managers, researchers, planners and students of natural resource management interested in efficient carbon management as a strategy to develop climate resilient agriculture. Dated the 12th July, 2012 (S. Ayyappan) New Delhi Preface Soil carbon is considered one of the most important indicators of the productivity of low input farming systems and in assessing the soil health. It is the key to soil fertility, productivity and quality, as decline in carbon content not only affects sustainability of agricultural ecosystems, but also extremely important in maintaining overall quality of the environment. Soil contains a significant part (3.5%) of global carbon stock. There is a growing interest in assessing the role of soil as a sink for carbon under different landuse practices as increase in soil organic carbon content by 0.01% could lead to sequestration of carbon that can compensate the annual increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. Sequestering 1 tonne carbon in humus can conserve nutrients to the tune of 83.3 kg N, 20 kg P and 14.3 kg S per hectare. Thus, carbon management is the essential to environment management and sustainability of soil health vis-a-vis agricultural productivity. Northeastern region of India, a mega-biodiversity centre of the world, contains more than one-third of India’s total biodiversity. The region has huge potential of biomass production, well supported by complimentary climatic factors, more particularly high rainfall for luxuriant vegetative growth and regeneration rate. Availability of abundant phyto-biomass (both above and below ground) in the form of forests and other allied sources has made the north east region a unique place in the world. Since vegetation is one of the most important sources to enrich soil with carbon, a general belief is that the soils of NE region will be very high in carbon content cutting across all major landuse practices. However, in reality, prevalence of slash and burn agriculture (jhuming) in 0.877 Mha area of NE region resulted in burning of biomass of more than 8.5 million tonnes annually at the rate 10 t ha-1. If this trend continues, sustainability of environment, soil health vis-a-vis agricultural production systems and food security of the region will be pushed to a real doldrums. Realizing the importance of carbon management in agro-ecosystem in sustaining productivity, an eight days training programme on “C-management in Agriculture for mitigating green house effect” was organized by ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region under “National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture” to sensitize and update the new frontiers of C-management strategies like conservation agriculture, biochar, mitigation of GHGs emission and other potential C-sequestration approaches. The present book is the outcome of the valuable contributions made by various scientists and researchers across the country. We hope, the book on “Carbon Management in Agriculture for Mitigating Greenhouse Effect” will immensely help in the understanding the science of carbon dynamics and management in agro-ecosystems. The authors are sincerely thankful to all the contributors for their valuable chapters without which it would not have been possible to bring out this publication. Special thanks goes to Miss Binalyn Kharumnuid for typesetting and arranging all the chapters of the book. Finally, the help rendered by the scientists, staffs and RA/SRFs are sincerely acknowledged. Editors CONTENTS S.N Title and Author(s) Page No. 1. Climate Change and Food Security in North Eastern Region of India 1-16 A.K. Singh and S.V. Ngachan 2. Carbon Sequestration in Agricultural Soils: Evolving Concepts, 17-26 Issues and Strategies Pramod Jha, A.K. Biswas and A. Subba Rao 3. Carbon Sequestration: Global and Indian Scenario 27-42 K.K. Bandyopadhyay 4. Soil Carbon Sequestration and its Potential in Mitigating 43-59 Climate Change Ch. Srinivasa Rao and B.Venkateswarlu 5. Greenhouse Gas Emission from Agriculture 60-69 H. Pathak 6. Soil Organic Carbon Mapping of Northeastern Region of India: 70-82 a Geographic Information System Approach B.U. Choudhury, A.K. Singh, S.V. Ngachan, Pratibha T. Das, L. Nongkhlaw, Anup Das, B.C.Verma, K.P. Mohapatra, D.J. Rajkhowa and G.C.Munda 7. Impact of Land Use Management on Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics 83-101 M.C. Manna and A. Subba Rao 8. Soil Carbon Management in Hill Agriculture: Options and 102-114 Opportunities in Northeast India M. Datta, Anup Das and S.V. Ngachan 9. Role of Soil Erosion and Deposition in Stabilization and 115-132 Destabilization of Soil Organic Carbon Debashis Mandal S.N. Title and Author (s) Page No. 10. Carbon Sequestration in Forests and its Potential in Climate 133-151 Change Mitigation V.K.