since about one half of the total cereal grain carbon foot print is for supplemental nitrogen the use of legumes is highly recommended. The use of legumes and the organic amendment of manures and composts can eliminate any requirement for supplemental nitrogen.

Besides carbon footprint the ability to get carbon sequestration from the agricultural system can be critical. In the monsoon environment of India the efficiency of water usage is dependent of the soil organic matter which has largely been depleted in may subcontinent areas. One of the best ways to increasing both soil organic matter and the ability to have high crop production is the integration of the plant and animal systems. When winter small grain can be used to establish a permanent mixed forage this stimulates a grassland type of environment which maximizes soil improvement.

Beside the establishment of legume foundation and mixed agricultural system the efficiency of the system depend on getting the high soil pH and balancing the soil nutrition through addressing deficiencies and toxicities.

By focusing on the biological input in the soil the requirements for agrichemical inputs and their issues can be avoided. The use of tillage practices can aid by using no till methods and substituting biological controls for the agrichemical.s

The system approach starts with a baselining of the soil conditions the use of soil analysis which leads to soil conservation and remediation plan.

The periodic assay of the soil and plant analyses serves as a way of monitoring and indicating when adjustments are needed.

This type of approach would ideally utilize teams of farmers and scientists who can interact together in the goals which would be applied in generalized regional approaches to extend the benefits from the approach and use the input efficiently.

Practices of production can be quantified for their carbon footprint and the results on the soil are used to determine sequestration as ongoing evaluation and adaptation.

While Carbon analysis many times starts and stops with the itemization of the cost in carbon of production processes this is not the whole story. Carbon analysis needs to get a handle of the net effect upon the soil.

Like an economic analysis Revenues minus Costs will equal net profit, in a cost analysis Carbon sequestration from the system practices minus the costs of the production is the net effect of the agricultural system.

The net effect of our modern agriculture system is that inputs of agrichemicals increases the carbon costs and the depletion of the soil organic matter makes the net carbon losses to the atmosphere as greenhouse gas worse.

The two fold carbon economic approach is to reduce the agrichemical inputs and to optimize the land improvement by sequestering carbon in the soil as increased organic matter.

Increasing soil organic matter requires a plan to that effect and long term monitoring to assure the plan is having the desired effect. On going long term monitoring of soil organic matter becomes a critical aspect of this carbon economy approach.

Perenniality is a key target