Biomass Production and Carbon Stock of Agroforestry Practices in the Mid Hills of Central Himalaya

R. P. Yadav; J. K. Bisht; A. Pattanayak

doi:10.36808/if/2019/v145i5/145682

Biomass Production and Carbon Stock of Agroforestry Practices in the Mid Hills of Central Himalaya

Authors

R. P. Yadav ICAR-Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan, Almora, Uttarakhand
J. K. Bisht ICAR-Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan, Almora, Uttarakhand
A. Pattanayak ICAR-Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan, Almora, Uttarakhand

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36808/if/2019/v145i5/145682

Keywords:

Agroforestry, Carbon Sequestration, High-Density Plantation, Himalaya.

Abstract

Himalayan region has a long tradition of agroforestry, several indigenous agroforestry systems based on people's needs and site-specific characteristics have been developed over the years. Agroforestry practices have attractive, wide and promising potential to store carbon and remove atmospheric carbon dioxide through enhanced growth of trees. A study was conducted at experimental farm Hawalbagh, Almora, India to assess the carbon stock in different agroforestry practices in the mid hills of Central Himalayas. Tree density of Carya illinoinensis (Pecan nut) was 238 trees ha^-1 and a total of 21.90 Mg C ha^-1 was stored in the pecan nut stem biomass in pecan nut based agrihorti system. The density of fruit trees was 277 trees ha^-1 and it was found that carbon stock in pear was highest (12.7 Mg ha^-1) followed by apricot (7.33 Mg ha^-1), plum (5.78 Mg ha^-1) and lemon (3.79 Mg ha^-1) in fruit based agrihorti system. The carbon stock of high density (1.0 m Ã— 1.0 m) plantation of Quercus leucotrichophora (Oak) was 17.55 Mg carbon per hectare per year. Biomass carbon equivalent carbon dioxide (CO₂) turned out to be 80.03 Mg C ha^-1 for pecan nut, 46.61 Mg C ha^-1 for pear, 26.90 Mg C ha^-1 for apricot, 21.20 Mg C ha^-1 for plum and 13.91 Mg C ha^-1 for lemon in pecan nut and fruit based agrihorti systems, respectively. Thus, agroforestry systems contributing towards tapping of atmospheric CO₂ vis-Ã -vis mitigation of greenhouse gases while proving remunerative to farmers.

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