Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
the market price, less brokerage cost. This may be substantial
and is an increasing fraction as the amount of carbon involved
diminishes, creating a serious entry barrier for smallholders.
In developing countries, this could involve many thousands of
farmers (Smith et al., 2007a).
Measure ment
and monitoring
costs
Such costs can be either minimal (Mooney et al
.,
2004) or large
(Smith, 2004c). In general, measurement costs per carbon-
credit sold decrease as the quantity of carbon sequestered and
area sampled increase. Methodological advances in measur-
ing soil carbon may reduce costs and increase the sensitivity
of change detection. However, improved methods to account
for changes in soil bulk density remain a hindrance to quanti-
fication of changes in soil carbon stocks (Izaurralde and Rice,
2006). With the development of remote sensing, new spectral
techniques to measure soil carbon and modelling offer oppor-
tunities to reduce costs, but will require evaluation (Ogle and
Paustian, 2005; Brown et al., 2006; Izaurralde and Rice, 2006;
Gehl and Rice, 2007).
property rights
Property rights, landholdings and the lack of a clear single-
party land ownership in certain areas may inhibit implementa-
tion of management changes (Smith et al., 2007a).
Other barriers
The other possible barriers to implementation include the avail-
ability of capital, the rate of capital stock turnover, the rate of
technological development, risk attitudes, need for research
and outreach, consistency with traditional practices, pressure
for competing uses of agricultural land and water, demand for
agricultural products, high costs for certain enabling technolo-
gies and ease of compliance (e.g. straw burning is quicker than
residue removal and can also control some weeds and diseases,
so farmers favour straw burning) (Smith et al., 2007a).
Considering the growing concern of elevated atmospheric
GHGs, the complex economics and availability of fossil fuels
and the deterioration of the environment and health conditions
with a shift away from intense reliance on heavy chemical inputs
to an intense biologically-based agriculture and food system is
possible today (Niggli et al., 2009). Sustainable and organic
agriculture offers multiple opportunities to reduce GHGs and
counteract global warming. Organic agriculture reduces energy
requirements for production systems by 25-50% compared to
conventional chemical-based agriculture. Reducing GHGs
through their sequestration in soil has even greater potential
to mitigate climate change. Soil improvement is essential for
