Context
Carbon farming is a collection of agricultural methods that aim to store carbon in the soil, crop roots, wood and leaves. It is a set of regenerative agricultural practices that restore ecosystem health while improving agricultural productivity and soil health, and mitigating climate change by enhancing carbon storage in agricultural landscapes and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
How can carbon farming help?
- For instance, the application of carbon farming might be as easy as rotational grazing or cleaning of grazing areas. In addition to that, agroforestry, conservation agriculture, integrated nutrient management, agro-ecology, livestock management and land restoration are listed.
- Intercropping with trees is also an extremely profitable way of sequestering CO2 in trees, shrubs and croplands. Income diversification of farms can be achieved using these agricultural practices called silvopasture and alley cropping.
- Conservation agriculture technique which is characterised by zero tillage, crop rotation , crop covers , and crop residue maintenance like stubble and composting can be extremely helpful in areas with other farming activities.
What are the challenges to carbon farming?
- Although, the ability of carbon farming to maintain various benefits is somehow unpredictable because several factors affect its efficacy, location, soil type, farm type, water abundance, animal variety, size, and scale of a farm.
- However, its usefulness is not possible alone through government management practices, the existence of policies, and community participation as well.
- Regions under the tropical or subtropical climate, with regular rainfall, and well-developed irrigation systems have critical factors for carbon farming application, because those are the factors promoting carbon in the vegetable growth.
- These particular farming systems are known to recover soils that were previously degraded from old practices, and in areas where precipitations are adequate, and where soil is formed by a fertile layer, it could be highly beneficial.
What are some carbon farming schemes worldwide?
- In the past decade a small but potentially cost-effective creation has been the emergence of the agriculture sector carbon trading practices that have been implemented especially in the U. S. , Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. There the emergence of the voluntary carbon markets has been recorded.
- For instance, the Chicago Climate Exchange and the Australian Carbon Farming Initiative highlight the economic mechanisms providing incentives for carbon cuts in the agriculture sector as well.
- They include systems such as NT forms of farming (when plants are grown on the surface of the soil without digging it) and reforestation and the cleaning of the environment.
- Carbon farming implemented by Kenyan Agricultural Carbon Project has a World Bank’s backing as well and it underlines the possibility that carbon farming, in its turn, is capable of addressing and remedying not only climate mitigation and adaptation challenges but also food security concerns, which are very significant in economically developing states.
What are the opportunities in India?
- As climate change becomes more powerful, the agricultural practices based on climate resiliency and emissions reduction could be fully adapted.
- It is really agriculture that is necessary in this scheme. Grassroots movement in conjunction with the path breaking research on agrarian by India at the moment is proving the viability of carbon sequestration under organic farming.
- Moreover, Indian agro-ecological approaches would have high economic potential. They may provide about sixty three billion dollars of value from two hundred seventy hectares of arable land.
- This payment roughly corresponds to ₹5000-6000 per acre of land, farmed by the farmers who will make use of climate services by following sustainable agricultural methods.
- For carbon farming, the areas with more agricultural lands like the Indo-Gangetic plains and the Deccan Plateau are the best located, but as a whole the Himalayan region with its mountainous terrain is less suitable.
- Due to prolonged exposure to salinisation and, perhaps, to the lack of necessary resources, traditional agriculture may become impractical for the coastal areas.
Source: The Hindu
UPSC Mains Practice Question
Q. Discuss the concept of carbon farming, its potential benefits for both the environment and agriculture, and the challenges in its widespread adoption. Also, evaluate the role of government policies and international cooperation in promoting carbon farming practices.
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