Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Applying organic fertilizers, such as those resulting from composting,
could increase the amount of carbon stored in these soils (stable organic
fractions) and contribute significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gas
emissions as climate change mitigation measure. The Intergovernmental
Panel has recognized carbon sequestration in soil on Climate Change and
the European Commission as one of the possible measures through which
greenhouse gas emissions can be mitigated. One estimate of the potential
value of this approach was assumed that 20% of the surface of agricultural
land in the EU could be used as a sink for carbon - suggested it could con-
stitute about 8.6% of the total EU emission-reduction objective (Favoino
and Hogg, 2008). An increase of just 0.15% in organic carbon in arable
soils in a country like Italy would effectively imply the sequestration of
the same amount of carbon within soil that is currently released into the
atmosphere in a period of one year with fossil fuels. Furthermore, increas-
ing organic matter in soils may cause other greenhouse gas-saving effects,
such as improved workably of soils, better water retention, less production
and use of mineral fertilizers and reduced release of nitrous oxide.
According to (Favoino and Hogg, 2008), this loss of carbon sink capac-
ity is not permanent. Composting can contribute in a positive way to the
twin objectives of restoring soil quality and sequestering carbon in soils.
Applications of organic matter (in the form of organic fertilizers) can lead
either to a build-up of soil organic carbon over time, or a reduction in the
rate at which organic matter in soils will be higher than using no organic
fertilizer. The results suggested that soils where manure was added have
soil organic carbon levels 1.34% higher than un-amended soils, and 1.13%
higher than soils amended with chemical fertilizers, over a 50-year period.
This is clearly significant given the evaluations reported above regarding
carbon being lost from soils, and the increasing amount of carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere. Based on these studies, it is possibility to develop mod-
els for studying dynamics of carbon storage compost application.
Response of different organic manuring on soil organic carbon changes
11.1
) that with all the treatments, the organic carbon content continued
to increase e.g., from an initial level of 0.50% to 0.62% with FYM (T
1
)
treatment, 0.51% to 0.79% with vermicompost treatment (T
2
), 0.54% to
0.64% with poultry manure (T
3
), no change from initial value of 0.52%
with green manuring of fodder cowpea (T
4
), 0.58% to 0.66% with sun-
hemp green manuring (T
5
) and from 0.54% to 0.56% with inorganic fer-
