Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
should provide for solutions to fight against climate change. In
this context, biofuels produced both from traditional and GMO
crops, such as sugarcane, oilseed, rapeseed and jatropha, will
play a crucial role in reducing the adverse effects of greenhouse
gases emission, particularly CO
2
by the transport sector. Hence,
energy-efficient farming will depend on machines that use bio-
ethanol and biodiesel instead of the conventional fossil fuels.
A plantation of perennial non-edible oil seed producing plants
will help in clearing the atmosphere and producing biodiesel
fuel for direct use in the energy sector or in blending biofuels
with fossil fuel in certain proportion, thereby minimising the
use of fossil fuels to some extent (Jain and Sharma, 2010).
The capture or uptake of the carbon-containing substances,
particularly carbon dioxide, is often referred to as carbon
sequestration. It is commonly used to describe any increase
in soil organic carbon content caused by the change in land
management (Powlson et al., 2011). The soil carbon sequestra-
tion is one of the important strategies to limit the increase of
the atmospheric CO
2
concentration. One way to enhance carbon
sequestration is by reducing conventional tillage. Conventional
tillage means to completely turn the soil to reduce the need for
weed control and receive higher yield. However, tillage causes
high erosion rates, resulting in the release of CO
2
into the atmo-
sphere and the loss of other nutrients from soil. Tillage also
increases the speed of decomposition of organic matter in the
soil by increasing the availability of oxygen in the soil. An alter-
nate approach to conventional tillage is the conservation tillage,
which leaves approximately 30% of crop residue on the land
to help reduce soil erosion from wind and rain. In this way, it
reduces the loss of CO
2
from the agricultural systems and also
plays a vital role in reducing water loss through evaporation,
increasing soil stability and in maintaining cool soil microcli-
mate. Conservation tillage is considered the superior option to
conventional tillage as it reduces erosion and sedimentation
in nearby waterways and allows for more natural soil cycles.
Biotechnology takes conservation tillage a step further by cre-
ating GM crops like herbicide-tolerant (HT) seeds that reduce
the need for tillage and allow farmers to adopt 'no-till' farming
practices. In no-till farming, crops are specifically designed to
reduce the impacts of soil preparation through plowing, ripping
or turning the soil. HT crops allow farmers to apply herbicides
to the emerging weeds rather than incorporating into the soil
through tillage. This strategy has been made possible only by
the use of biotechnology, which allowed the development of GM
seeds, in the absence of which herbicides would have killed both
