Carbon Farming

Source-This post on Carbon Farming is based on the article “What is carbon farming?” published in “The Hindu” on 8th May 2024.

Why in the News?

Amid growing environmental challenges and the quest for climate-resilient sustainable agriculture, the practice of carbon trading in the agriculture sector has become important around the world.

The carbon farming approach aims to optimize carbon capture by utilizing practices that enhance the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere and its storage in plant material and soil organic matter.

About carbon farming:

1. About Carbon farming: Carbon farming is an agricultural method that integrates the management of carbon capture and storage into farming practices.

2. Objective: It is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance the carbon content of soil, and improve overall agricultural productivity and ecosystem health.

3. Strategies involved: Carbon farming can involve multiple strategies and each practice is tailored to fit different agricultural landscapes and climatic conditions, making carbon farming versatile and widely applicable.

About Carbon Farming Practices and Their Benefits

1. Rotational Grazing: It involves rotating livestock across different pastures. This technique helps to maintain soil health and increase carbon sequestration in the soil.

2. Agroforestry Practices: It is a land use practices where trees or shrubs are grown around or among crops or pastureland.

a) Silvopasture: It involves integrating trees, pasture, and livestock. It sequesters carbon and also diversifies farm income.

b) Alley Cropping: It involves planting rows of trees or shrubs between crops to provide shade, reduce erosion, and enhance carbon storage.

3. Conservation Agriculture: 

a) Zero Tillage: It reduces soil disturbance to maintain soil structure and organic content.

b) Crop Rotation and Cover Cropping: It involves alternating crops and using cover crops to improve soil health and biodiversity.

c) Crop Residue Management: It includes practices like stubble retention and composting help enhance soil organic matter.

4. Integrated Nutrient Management: This involves using organic fertilizers and compost to promote soil fertility and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

5. Agro-Ecological Approaches:

a) Crop Diversification and Intercropping: These practices improve ecosystem resilience by diversifying plant species, which helps in pest control and nutrient balance.

6. Livestock Management: It involves optimizing feed quality, managing animal waste, and using rotational grazing to reduce methane emissions and increase carbon storage in pastures.

7. Management of Excessive carbon through additional carbon sinks- The launch of the ‘4 per 1000’ initiative during the COP21 climate talks in 2015 in Paris highlights the particular role of sinks in mitigating greenhouse-gas emissions. As the oceans and the atmosphere are filled with carbon, and they approach their saturation points, carbon farming can help in effective sequestration.

Challenges of Carbon Farming

1. Geographical and Climatic Limitations: Optimal carbon sequestration requires long growing seasons and sufficient water, and it is thus challenging in hot, dry areas where water is scarce.

2. Soil and Biodiversity Constraints: Effective carbon sequestration is hindered by poor soil quality and limited biodiversity.

3. Water Resource Management: Plant growth is restricted in arid region due to water scarcity. This impacts carbon sequestration and makes water-intensive practices like cover cropping impractical.

4. Economic and Financial Barriers: Adopting carbon farming can be costly initially and thus deter its adoption among small-scale and resource-poor farmers.

5. Policy Support and Community Engagement: Effective carbon farming requires robust policy support and active community involvement for successful adoption and scalability.

UPSC Syllabus- Environment