Carbon farming is a system of agricultural management that helps the land store more carbon and reduces the amount of greenhouse gases that it releases into the atmosphere. Conservation tillage, in conjunction with effective input management, such as watering, fertilizer, and insecticides, aids in carbon sequestration in the soil and crop. Changes in land use and traditional agricultural techniques are substantial sources of CO2 emissions on a worldwide scale. Carbon farming practices are management practices that are known to sequester carbon and/or reduce GHG emissions. Carbon sequestered, or stored, is carbon not emitted into the atmosphere. Less carbon in the atmosphere will reduce the greenhouse gas effect and lessen the impacts of climate change. Soil carbon sequestration is a process in which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and stored in the soil carbon pool. This process is primarily mediated by plants through photosynthesis, with carbon stored in the form of SOC. As crops photosynthesize to produce their food, they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and create the oxygen we need to breathe. Through this chemical process, carbon is sequestered in the soil. When looking for suitable crops for storing carbon the best are those which grow on trees. Trees lock up carbon in their biomass and stay in place for many decades. Nut trees like chestnuts also do not need annual energy input such as ploughing which destroys soil life. In its lifetime, a teak tree with a girth of 10-30 cm can absorb 3.70 lakh tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Teak has the highest capacity for carbon sequestration among trees in India.
Carbon farming and carbon sequestration are both agricultural techniques aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but there are some important differences between them.
Carbon farming refers to agricultural practices that store carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This can be achieved, for example, by growing crops with high carbon storage capacity, maintaining fertile soil, or establishing a healthy soil ecosystem.
On the other hand, carbon sequestration refers to the process of continuously absorbing and storing carbon. This can be done by planting trees that can bind carbon or creating high-carbon soils.
Crop rotation, conservation tillage, and cover cropping (known as "CA") play an important role in carbon sequestration. This is because:
Rotating crops helps maintain soil health while storing carbon in the soil, and can reduce the amount of pesticides in the soil.
Conservation tillage reduces soil disturbance by tilling less than before, allowing for more stable storage of carbon in the soil.
Cover crops can reduce soil loss in large-scale agriculture and prevent soil oxidation between crop cycles, thereby reducing carbon loss from the soil.
Therefore, while carbon farming and carbon sequestration are different concepts, they are both moving in the same direction of reducing carbon in agriculture, and CA is an important component of carbon sequestration.
Carbon farming refers to land management activities aimed at storing carbon in trees and soils, or avoiding the release of carbon through better management of fire, livestock, and fertilizer use. As crops photosynthesize to produce their food, they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and create the oxygen we need to breathe. Through this chemical process, carbon is sequestered in the soil. Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. It is one method of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with the goal of reducing global climate change. Carbon farming is the deliberate set of agricultural practices or land uses to increase carbon stored in the soil and vegetation and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from livestock, soil or vegetation. Carbon farming is a system of agricultural management that helps the land store more carbon and reduces the amount of greenhouse gases that it releases into the atmosphere. Carbon farming (also known as carbon sequestration) is a system of agricultural management that helps the land store more carbon and reduces the amount of greenhouse gases that it releases into the atmosphere. Carbon storage is the total amount of carbon contained in a forest or a part of the forest. Carbon sequestration is the process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in another form that cannot immediately be released, like wood. It is the rate of uptake of carbon from the atmosphere.Using higher residue cover crops and rotations, such as oats and hay, creates larger volumes of plant biomass and stores more carbon in the soil.