Abstract
Large numbers of horticultural crops are grown in India due to its wide variety of soil and climatic conditions. However, perennial horticultural crops have edge over annuals as they generally need low inputs such as water, energy, etc., and have high productivity values. India has large tracts of waste and marginal lands (96 million hectares of cultivable wasteland). These lands can be brought under perennial horticultural crops for successful and profitable commercial horticulture. Moreover, putting these marginal lands to perennial horticultural crops can enhance carbon sequestration and improve organic carbon content and health of the soils. This also rejuvenates degraded soils, improves the land productivity, enriches the diversity, and protects the environment. Horticultural crops have a great scope for sequestering more carbon in terrestrial ecosystem than agricultural or agroforestry systems. Studies reported that the carbon dioxide sequestration was significantly greater under the perennial crops as compared to annual crops. The carbon sequestration potential of different horticultural cropping systems ranked in the order of mango > cashew > rose > vegetable > medicinal and aromatic plants, and addition of more residues in perennial systems to soil records less emission of CO2 than annual crops. As a consequence, perennial horticulture-based systems provide economic gain through carbon credits. Enhancement of carbon sequestration in perennial systems can be attained by improving soil health and through better carbon management strategies. These include planting high-biomass-producing crops, recycling crop residue, application of manures, switching from annual to perennial crops, adopting crop rotation in place of monoculture, and promotion of agroforestry systems. This chapter mainly describes the role of perennial horticultural systems in enhancing soil carbon, soil organic matter dynamics, carbon fractions, and its assessment in horticultural systems, carbon sequestration potential of perennial horticultural crops, and also the management options available for improving C sequestration under such system.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Batjes NH (1996) Total carbon and nitrogen in the soils of the World. Eur J Soil Sci 47:151–163
Bhagya HP, Maheswarappa HP, Surekha RB (2017) Carbon sequestration potential in coconut-based cropping systems. Indian J Hort 74(1):1–5
Bhavya VP, Anil Kumar S, Shiva Kumar KM (2017) Land use systems to improve carbon sequestration in soils for mitigation of climate change. Int J Chem Stud 5(4):2019–2021
Bloomfield J, Pearson HL (2000) Land use, land-use change, forestry, and agricultural activities in the clean development mechanism: estimates of greenhouse gas offset potential. Mitig Adapt Strat Glob Chang 5:9–24
Brown S (1997) Estimating biomass and biomass change in tropical forests: a primer. FAO forestry paper 134, FAO, Rome
Brown S (2001) Measuring and monitoring carbon benefits for forest-based projects: experience from pilot projects. In: Roger A, Sedjo MT (eds) Can carbon sinks be operational? Resources for the future workshop proceedings. Resources for the Future, Washington, DC
Cairns MA, Brown S, Helmer EH, Baumgardner GA (1997) Root biomass allocation in the world’s upland forests. Oecologia 111:1–11
Chandran P, Ray SK, Durge SL (2016) Scope of horticultural land-use system in enhancing carbon sequestration in ferruginous soils of semi-arid tropics. Curr Sci 97(7):1039–1046
Chaturvedi AN (1994) Carbon sequestration through aforestation: role of tropical industrial plantations. Ambio 25(5):327–330
Christensen BT (2001) Physical fractionation of soil and structural and functional complexity in organic matter turnover. Eur J Soil Sci 52:345–353
Datta A, Basak N, Chaudhari SK, Sharma DK (2015) Effect of horticultural land uses on soil properties and organic carbon distribution in a reclaimed sodic soil. J Ind Soc Soil Sci 63(3):294–303
Denef K, Zotarelli L, Boddey RM, Six J (2007) Microaggregate-associated carbon as a diagnostic fraction for management-induced changes in soil organic carbon in two Oxisols. Soil Biol Biochem 39:1165–1172
Ecosystem Marketplace (2010) http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/dynamic/carbon_Market.landing_page.php
Eswaran H, Van Den Berg E, Reich P, Kimble J (1995) Global soil carbon resources. In: Lal R, Kimble J, Levine E, Stewart BA (eds) Soils and global change. Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, pp 27–43
Ganeshamurthy AN (2009) Annual report 2008–09. IIHR, Bangalore
Gregorich EG, Beare MH, Mckim UF, Skjemstad JO (2006) Chemical and biological characteristics of physically uncomplexed organic matter. Soil Sci Soc Am J 7:975–985
Hamburg SP (2000) Simple rules for measuring changes in ecosystem carbon in forestry-offset projects. Mitig Adapt Strat Glob Chang 5:25–37
Jagadamma S, Lal R (2010) Distribution of organic carbon in physical fractions of soils as affected by agricultural management. Biol Fertil Soils 46:543–554
Janiola MDC, Marin RA (2016) Carbon sequestration potential of fruit tree plantations in Southern Philippines. J Biodivers Environ Sci 8(5):164–174
Jastrow JD, Miller RM (1997) Soil aggregate stabilization and carbon sequestration: feed backs through organo-mineral associations. In: Lal R, Kimble J, Levine E, Stewart BA (eds) Soil processes and carbon cycle. Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, pp 207–223
Jenny H (1950) Causes of high nitrogen and organic matter content of certain tropical forest soils. Soil Sci 69:63–69
Johnson MG (1995) The role of soil management in sequestering soil carbon. In: Lal R (ed) Soil management and green house effect. CRC Press/Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, pp 351–363
Liao C, Luo Y, Fang C, Li B (2010) Ecosystem carbon stock influenced by plantation practice: implications for planting forests as a measure of climate change mitigation. PLoS One 5:1–6
MacDicken KG (1997) A guide to measuring carbon storage in forestry and agroforestry projects. Forest carbon monitoring program, Winrock International, Arlington
Naitam R, Bhattacharyya T (2004) Quasi-equilibrium of organic carbon in shrink-swell soils of sub-humid tropics in India under forest, horticulture and agricultural systems. Aust J Soil Res 42:181–188
Nieder R, Benbi DK (2008) Carbon and nitrogen in the terrestrial environment. Springer, Dordrecht
Palm CA, Woomer PL, Alegre J (1999) Carbon sequestration and trace gas emissions in slash-and-burn and alternative land-uses in the humid tropics. ASB climate change working group final report-phase II, Nairobi, Kenya
Rajput BS, Bhardwaj DR, Nazir AP (2017) Factors influencing biomass and carbon storage potential of different land use systems along an elevational gradient in temperate northwestern Himalaya. Agrofor Syst 91:479–486
Shrestha G, Malla G (2016) Estimation of atmospheric carbon sequestration by fruit plants in mid-western terai region, Nepal. Nepal J Agric Sci 14:211–215
Six J, Conant RT, Paul EA, Paustian K (2002) Stabilization mechanisms of soil organic matter: implications for C-saturation of soils. Plant Soil 241:155–176
Tomich TP, van Noordwijk M, Budidarsono S (1998) Alternatives to slash-and-burn in Indonesia: summary report and synthesis of Phase II. ASB Indonesia report number 8, Bogor, Indonesia
Verchot LV, Dutaur L, Shepherd KD, Albrecht A (2011) Organic matter stabilization in soil aggregates: understanding the biogeochemical mechanisms that determine the fate of carbon inputs in soils. Geoderma 161:182–193
Wang Q, Li Y, Alva A (2010) Cropping systems to improve carbon sequestration for mitigation of climate change. J Environ Prot 1:207–215
Wendling B, Jucksch I, Mendonca ES, Alvarenga RC (2010) Organic-matter pools of soil under pines and annual cultures. Commun Soil Sci Plant Anal 41:1707–1722
Wiesenberg GLB, Dorodnikov M, Kuzyakov Y (2010) Source determination of lipids in bulk soil and soil density fractions after four years of wheat cropping. Geoderma 156:267–277
Wise R, Cacho O (2002) A bioeconomic analysis of soil carbon sequestration in agroforests. Working paper C02, ACIAR project ASEM 1999/093
Wu T, Wang Y, Yu C (2012) Carbon sequestration by fruit trees- Chinese apple orchards as an example. PLoS One 7(6):e38883
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ganeshamurthy, A.N., Kalaivanan, D., Rajendiran, S. (2020). Carbon Sequestration Potential of Perennial Horticultural Crops in Indian Tropics. In: Ghosh, P., Mahanta, S., Mandal, D., Mandal, B., Ramakrishnan, S. (eds) Carbon Management in Tropical and Sub-Tropical Terrestrial Systems. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9628-1_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9628-1_20
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-9627-4
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-9628-1
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)