Reduction of global warming potential vis-à-vis greenhouse gases through traditional agroforestry systems in Rajasthan India

Abstract

Tree-based systems in arid region of India are an integral part of livelihood and environment security. Traditionally, the maintenance of scattered trees on farm to reap several tangible and intangible benefits is a way of life. Presently, these systems are often known as low hanging fruit and becoming a key weapon to fight climate change evil by offsetting greenhouse gas emission through carbon sequestration.Therefore, to quantify the offsetting potential of GHG emission and area occupied by these tree-based systems in Rajsthanwas undertaken. The study was carried out into two major aspects: estimation of agroforestry area using satellite remote sensing data, and to estimate the carbon sequestration potential (CSP) of existing agroforestry byusing dynamic CO2FIXv3.1 model for a simulation period of 30 years in five districts (20% sampling) viz. Bikaner, Dausa, Jhunjunu, Pali and Sikarfrom Rajasthan, India. The estimated area under agroforestryin Rajasthan was 1.49 million ha. The findings revealed that the major tree species existing on farmer’s field were Prosopis cineraria, Tecomellaundulata, Capparis decidua, Acacia tortilis, Prosopisjuliflora, Azadirachtaindicaand Ziziphusmauritianawith an observed number of trees in selecteddistricts varied from 1.40 to 14.90 ha-1(with average tree density of 9.71 ha-1). The total biomass (tree+Crop) varied from 2.22 to 19.19 Mg ha-1, whereas, the total biomass carbon ranged from 1.00 to 8.64 Mg C ha-1.The soil organic carbon ranged from 4.51 to 16.50 Mg C ha-1. The average estimated carbon sequestration and mitigation potential of the agroforestry were 0.26 Mg C ha-1yr-1and 0.95 Mg CO2eq ha-1yr-1 on farmers' field of Rajasthan. At the state level, the reduction of GHG emission potential of agroforestry found to be 1.42 million tonnes annually, which helps to cuts carbon footprint of the state as well as national level.