Soil carbon sequestration through various agronomic practices: A way to mitigate climate change impacts

Abstract

Climate change is among the emerging global issues of the 21st century. Carbon sequestration stands as a strategic principle for mitigating the adverse effect of changing climate as it removes CO2 from atmosphere and stores in soil, plant or in water bodies. In simpler terms, it is a process of capturing CO2 and storing them in forest, ocean or in deep geological formations for long term and thereby reducing the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Soil can be considered as the largest carbon reservoir of the terrestrial carbon cycle for storing large amount of soil organic carbon. Agronomic practices such as reduced tillage, manuring, residue incorporation, crop rotation and mulching play important roles in sequestering soil carbon. Growing crops in rotation provides advantage of storing more Carbon in soil as compared to mono cropping. Minimum tillage practices as well as incorporation of residues increases the soil carbon content significantly. Adding organic manures and fertilisers to soil, Growing forest trees, revegetation of degraded land and following various land use options also adds to the soil carbon storage. Applying soil amendments not only improves soil characteristics but also checks CO₂ and methane emissions. Many of the practices that facilitate carbon sequestration are also found to improve soil aggregate formation, water holding capacity, fertility status of soil and food security. Therefore, Soil Carbon sequestration can be considered as a key principle for improving soil health, enhancing crop yield as well as reducing the adverse effects of climate change.