• The role of the farmers
• In climate change mitigation
• Carbon storage
• Carbon sequestration in biomass
• Carbon sequestration in the soil
• In watershed protection services
• In biodiversity conservation
• Preserving agriculture landscape

In climate change mitigation

Agriculture can play an important role in climate change mitigation by reducing its own emissions and by increasing the storage of carbon in plants and the soil.

See below for basic reading on

-> Agriculture Mitigation Potential

-> Agriculture's role in the Carbon Market

The agricultural sector is an important source of three major greenhouse gases. It contributes about one third of the total carbon dioxide emissions and is the largest source of methane (from livestock and flood rice production) and nitrous oxides (primarily from application of inorganic nitrogenous fertilizer). Conversion of forest to annual crops or pasture also results in major loss of carbon stocks and its release to the atmosphere. Thus, agriculture can play an important role in climate change mitigation by reducing its own emissions.

Fig. 1 Carbon Sequestration- above and below ground(1)

In addition, agriculture can play an important role as a carbon sink, storing carbon in the soil and plant matter. Until now, the main thrust of efforts to use agriculture to manage greenhouse gases has been to increase above-ground sequestration: trees, plants and crops absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and store it as carbon in biomass. Nevertheless there is also considerable interest in the potential for sequestering carbon below-ground in soils, deposited as dead plant material or inorganic forms (e.g. calcium carbonate, carbon dioxide dissolved in groundwater). Soils are the largest carbon reservoir of the terrestrial carbon cycle and the 4th IPCC Assessment Report found that 89% of agriculture's technical mitigation potential lies in enhancing soil carbon sinks through cropland management, grazing land management, restoration of organic soils and degraded lands, bioenergy and water management.

Table 2.1 - Management practices to increase carbon sequestration and reduce emissions(2)

Ecosystem Service		Farm-Level Management		Landscape-Level Management
Carbon sequestration in soils		Soil organic matter management and enrichment, reduce frequency of cultivation; conservation tillage and soil conservation practices
Carbon sequestration in perennial plants		Increase area/use of perennial crops, farm forest management, agroforestry, natural regeneration, lengthen fallow periods		Afforestation, natural regeneration of trees and forests
Carbon emission reduction		Agricultural machinery emission management; reduce burning		Reduce forest and fallow burning
Methane emission reduction		Improved livestock management, improved peat soil management, change of rice paddy management		Protection of peat areas from disturbance

Any intervention that prevents the conversion of a higher to a lower carbon-storing land use, or that encourages conversion from a lower to a higher carbon-storing land use, will contribute to net carbon storage. This means that for example various agroforestry and conservation agriculture land management systems can make a meaningful contribution.  Technical carbon sequestration potential varies considerably by land use type and region.  Table 2.1 summarizes a set of management practices that farmers can adopt to increase carbon sequestration and to reduce emissions.

The adoption of these measures can be especially attractive in areas where the benefits drawn from agriculture are not substancial and where payments for the adoption of these measures might become a comparatively attractive opportunity.  The response of farmers to PES will depend on the cost of participating in the scheme, including establishement costs of the new measures and possible losses in the initial stages while land-use change reduces agricultural production- see next section for more details on methods and potential for biomass and soil carbon sequestration.

 

Pagos por Servicios Ambientales (PSA) en Paisajes Agrícolas - PESAL
es un proyecto financiado por el Programa de Parceria FAO/Holanda © FAO 2010