Carbon Farming: Need, Types, Benefits, Challenges & More

Carbon Farming represents a collection of agricultural practices aimed at capturing atmospheric CO2 and storing it in biomass, plants, and soil. Carbon Farming can significantly reduce climate change as well as enhance ecosystem health by transforming farming systems into carbon sinks. These include increasing soil organic matter; integrating agroforestry; optimizing crop rotations, among others which all facilitate atmospheric carbon sequestration.

This topic is most relevant to the General Studies Paper III of the UPSC Civil Services Examination. It falls under the subjects Environment and Ecology, as well as Agriculture. Furthermore, due to climate change focus, the outlook on sustainable development, and new farming methods or techniques, Carbon Farming is an important understanding for candidates.

What is Carbon Farming?

Carbon Farming means the practice in agriculture that enhances soil and vegetation capacity to remove atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) and acts like a carbon sink. It happens to be a salient method toward mitigating climate change by sequestering carbon and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Techniques include different schemes toward better improvement of soil health, increased biomass, and more sustainable agricultural practices.

Need for Carbon Farming

Based on emissions, the main determinant of the increasing influence of climate change is said to be anthropogenic emissions of GHGs. Agriculture is considered a source of considerable influence on global GHG emissions and is also on the high-vulnerability list of sectors to climate effects. Its influence in this regard is substantial because agriculture accounts for approximately 24% of total global GHG emissions, mostly through CH₄ and N₂O, according to the IPCC. By adopting Carbon Farming practices, farmers will significantly reduce these emissions and build healthier soils and biodiversity. There is a need for Carbon Farming because it may offer two solutions together: climate change and agriculture productivity in the case of food security.

Read the article on Global Warming and Climate Change!

Types of Carbon Farming Practices

Carbon farming practice include various approaches that reduce carbon emission and sequestrate carbon:

Agroforestry

Agroforestry integrates trees and shrubs into crop and livestock systems. In addition to carbon sequestration, agroforestry enhances biodiversity, improves soil structure, and opens up supplementary sources of income generated from timber, fruits, and other tree products. Trees capture carbon dioxide through the process of photosynthesis and store it within biomass and soils.

Cover Cropping

This includes crops like legumes, grasses, and other crops that are grown when the land is out of crop. This crop prevents soil erosion, improves soil fertility, increases organic content in soil, thus improving the ability of the soil to sequester carbon. In addition, cover crops can suppress weeds and reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Conservation Tillage

Conservation tillage is no-till and reduced tillage that does not disturb the soil. It helps preserve soil structure, reduce erosion, and retain water; besides, it maintains organic matter in place and prevents its oxidation, thus significantly contributing to carbon sequestration.

Silvopasture

Silvopasture is the integration of trees and grazing area for livestock pasturing. It combines environmental gains from forestry with economic advantages of livestock farming. Silvopasture systems result in more carbon storage in both trees and soil; also, they enhance pasture productivity and animal welfare.

Biochar Application

Biochar is charcoal, but the really interesting application is obtained by pyrolysis of organic waste. Addition to the soil increases its carbon content, enhances its fertility, and augments its water-holding capacity. It’s extremely stable and can persist in the ground for hundreds of years and sequester carbon-the excellent long-term carbon sink.

Read the article on World Climate and Climate Change!

Techniques Involved in Carbon Farming

There are a number of methods that have been established to maximize the sequestration of carbon while minimizing emissions that are employed in effective carbon farming practices.

• Organic Carbon in Soils: Crop Management Practices Such As Crop Rotation, Organic Amendments, Intercropping, and Minimal Soil Disturbance Increase Soil Organic Carbon.
• Afforestation and Reforestation: Afforestation and reforestation activities on degraded lands and revitalization of closed forests are important because trees act as long-term carbon sinks.
• Methane Management: Improved feeding strategies to the animal, feed additives, and anaerobic digestion of manure decrease methane emissions from domesticated animals.
• Water Management in Paddy Fields: Practices like Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) that are linked with rice production drastically decrease the emission of methane as it allows aeration of the soil.
• Precision Agriculture: Technologies that rely on data to enhance input use like water, fertilizers, and pesticides leading to reduced emission levels by maximizing carbon sequestration efficiencies.

Read the article on the Farming system!

Benefits of Carbon Farming

Carbon Farming provides a host of advantages in the environmental, economic, and social spheres:

• Environmental Benefits: Healthy soils lead to biodiversity, quality water by reducing runoff and helping with the sequestration of carbon to mitigate climate change.
• Economic Benefits: Saves input costs through improved yields because of soil fertility and water retained in the system, diversification of income by agroforestry and carbon credits, and resilience to climatically adverse conditions.
• Social Benefits: Helps in bringing about sustainable livelihoods with food security opportunities, enhanced decision-making and power to farming communities through resilient agricultural practices adopted, and community-based natural resource management.

Read the article on Organic Farming!

Challenges Associated with Carbon Farming

While it has promise, Carbon Farming is still facing several constraints that need to be addressed so that the practice can be rolled out more widely:

• Economic Constraints: The costs of adopting carbon farming practices are high. Limited access to cheaper capital and little incentive for farmers to shift toward sustainable agriculture.
• Technical Constraints: The lack of information and technical skill sets in farmers, inadequate extension, and a differential in research and development tailored to local conditions.
• Policy and Institutional Barriers: Inadequate policy frameworks, weak institutional support for monitoring and verification of carbon sequestration efforts, and a paucity of developed carbon credit markets.
• Market Barriers: Undefined market mechanisms for trading in carbon credits and insufficient infrastructure for linking farmers to carbon markets.

Read the article on the Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)!

Status of Carbon Farming in India

India's agricultural sector is the country's most significant sector in terms of its economy and food security and offers vast potential for Carbon Farming. However, under Carbon Farming practices, small-scale activities and pilot projects are still in their infant stages. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture is one such program which the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare launches to bring sustainable agricultural practices into mainstream agriculture. Larger-scale adaptation, however, is fraught with problems of extremely fragmented landholdings, a lack of awareness, and financial constraints. Its scaling-up requires collaboration among the government and research institutions, international organizations, and so on.

Initiatives Taken by the Indian Government in this Regard

The Indian Government has undertaken several initiatives on Carbon Farming and sustainable agriculture as follows:

• National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA): This has taken up climate-resilient agricultural practices to sustain agriculture. This deals with soil health management and efficient utilization of water.
• Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY): This would include financial support and training for farmers to go organic, which is the very essence of Carbon Farming.
• Soil Health Card Scheme: The card will carry information regarding the health status and provide suggestions for improving the soil quality; so, indirectly, Carbon Farming practices get encouraged.
• Green India Mission: A sub-mission under the NAPCC that aims for enhancing carbon sequestration through planting and afforestation activities.
• National Agroforestry Policy: Achievements endorsing trees-on-farms integration to enhance carbon sequestration, besides offering supplementary income to farmers.

Read the article on Rainfed Agriculture!

Way Forward

Realizing the potential of carbon farming calls for several strategically focused steps:

• Policy Frameworks Strengthening: Above-average policies providing financial incentives, technical support, and market linkages to facilitate improvements in Carbon Farming practices.
• Research and Development Improving: R&D investment on innovating and disseminating new Carbon Farming technologies and practices in different agro-climatic conditions
• Capacity Building and Education: Capacity building and farmer and agricultural extension workers education on carbon farming techniques and its benefits through workshops and field demonstrations coupled with information campaigns.
• Access to Markets: Developing robust carbon markets and efficient means of fair pricing of carbon credits to allow farmers to exploit their carbon sequestration activities.
• Measuring, Reporting, Verification System: Such reliable systems to ensure an accurate, transparent, and credible measurement, reporting, and verification to ensure the carbon trading is consistent with those requirements laid down in the agreements.

We hope your doubts regarding the topic have been addressed after going through the above article. Testbook offers good quality preparation material for different competitive examinations. Succeed in your UPSC IAS exam preparations by downloading the Testbook App here!