Soil Recarbonization Potential of Crop Residues and their Management through Inter-Convertible Carbon Triangle (ICCtriangle)

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (04) ◽  
pp. 226-238
Author(s):  
Poonam C. Singh ◽  
Ashmita Tandon ◽  
Suchi Srivastava ◽  
Puneet S. Chauhan ◽  
Pankaj K. Srivastava ◽  
...  

Intensive cropping is a major cause of depleting soil organic carbon (SOC) eventually leading to soil infertility. Restoration of depleted SOC requires renewable sources of organic amendments. Crop residue (CR), mostly lost due to burning in many parts of the world, is a generously available renewable source of organic carbon (OC) that can be used for soil recarbonization. The study presents an overview of the OC losses and pollution due to residue burning in India and explores the perspective of using surplus CR to restore SOC and promote ecosystem services for sustainable agriculture. We reviewed and quantified the magnitude of CR generated, and its fertilization potential in the Indo-Gangetic Region (IGR), an intensively cultivated region of India where rice straw burning is prevalent. A novel concept of interconvertible carbon triangle (ΔICC) is proposed based on the three carbon pools, SOC from the soil, CO2,/CO from the atmosphere and organic carbon (OC) from plant biomass to assess the instability of an agricultural land and estimate the SOC requirements based on the crop production data. The study reviews the availability of OC and other nutrients in CR and professes the need of technologies to divert the surplus CR to improving soil fertility and mitigate environmental pollution due to agricultural burnings.

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e4836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Pierre Hiel ◽  
Sophie Barbieux ◽  
Jérôme Pierreux ◽  
Claire Olivier ◽  
Guillaume Lobet ◽  
...  

Society is increasingly demanding a more sustainable management of agro-ecosystems in a context of climate change and an ever growing global population. The fate of crop residues is one of the important management aspects under debate, since it represents an unneglectable quantity of organic matter which can be kept in or removed from the agro-ecosystem. The topic of residue management is not new, but the need for global conclusion on the impact of crop residue management on the agro-ecosystem linked to local pedo-climatic conditions has become apparent with an increasing amount of studies showing a diversity of conclusions. This study specifically focusses on temperate climate and loamy soil using a seven-year data set. Between 2008 and 2016, we compared four contrasting residue management strategies differing in the amount of crop residues returned to the soil (incorporation vs. exportation of residues) and in the type of tillage (reduced tillage (10 cm depth) vs. conventional tillage (ploughing at 25 cm depth)) in a field experiment. We assessed the impact of the crop residue management on crop production (three crops—winter wheat, faba bean and maize—cultivated over six cropping seasons), soil organic carbon content, nitrate (${\mathrm{NO}}_{3}^{-}$), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) soil content and uptake by the crops. The main differences came primarily from the tillage practice and less from the restitution or removal of residues. All years and crops combined, conventional tillage resulted in a yield advantage of 3.4% as compared to reduced tillage, which can be partly explained by a lower germination rate observed under reduced tillage, especially during drier years. On average, only small differences were observed for total organic carbon (TOC) content of the soil, but reduced tillage resulted in a very clear stratification of TOC and also of P and K content as compared to conventional tillage. We observed no effect of residue management on the ${\mathrm{NO}}_{3}^{-}$ content, since the effect of fertilization dominated the effect of residue management. To confirm the results and enhance early tendencies, we believe that the experiment should be followed up in the future to observe whether more consistent changes in the whole agro-ecosystem functioning are present on the long term when managing residues with contrasted strategies.


Author(s):  
T. Zheliezna ◽  

Purpose of the study is to assess the current and prospective energy potential of agribiomass (agricultural residues and energy crops) in Ukraine, to determine its main components and the most effective areas of their use. Methods. The assessment of the current potential of agribiomass is performed using official statistics on crop production in Ukraine. Based on these data, the total amount of crop residues formed and their share available for energy needs is determined. When assessing the potential of energy crops, it is assumed that they are grown on 2 million hectares of unused agricultural land, the total area of which is up to 4 million hectares in Ukraine. The study of the prospective potential of biomass is performed for 2050, based on key growth factors, such as increasing yield of crops, especially cereals; doubling the area under energy crops and increasing their yields, etc. Results of the assessment show that according to 2018 data, the total bioenergy potential in Ukraine is more than 23 Mtoe (the economic potential). Its largest components are agricultural residues (44%) and energy crops (32%). Expert estimates suggest that by 2050, the biomass potential could increase to more than 47.5 Mtoe/yr, in other words almost to double. Forecasting the structure and directions of use of biomass potential by 2050 shows that about 20 Mtoe of biomass/biofuels of the following types will be consumed for energy: wood biomass, primary and secondary agricultural residues, energy crops, biogas/biomethane from different types of raw materials, liquid biofuels (biodiesel, bioethanol). Conclusions. Areas of use of biomass/biofuels include the production of heat and electricity from solid biofuels, obtaining of biogas and biomethane, as well as the production of motor biofuels (biomethane, biodiesel, bioethanol). In the near future, it is considered necessary to develop a long-term strategy for the development of bioenergy in Ukraine, taking into account results of the study. In turn, the basic figures of the bioenergy development strategy can be used for the elaboration of the updated Energy Strategy of Ukraine until 2050.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine Karstens ◽  
Benjamin Leon Bodirsky ◽  
Jan Philipp Dietrich ◽  
Marta Dondini ◽  
Jens Heinke ◽  
...  

Abstract. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is one of the largest terrestrial carbon stocks on Earth. The first meter of the Earths soils profile stores three times as much carbon as the vegetation and twice the amount of C in the atmosphere. SOC has been depleted by anthropogenic land cover change and agricultural management. However, the latter has so far not been well represented in global carbon stock assessments. While SOC models often simulate detailed biochemical processes that lead to the accumulation and decay of SOC, the management decisions driving these biophysical processes are still little investigated at the global scale. Here we develop a spatial explicit data set for agricultural management on cropland, considering crop production levels, residue returning rates, manure application, and the adoption of irrigation and tillage practices. We combine it with the IPCC Tier 2 steady-state soil model to create a half-degree resolution data set of SOC stocks and SOC stock changes for the first 30 cm of mineral soils. We estimate that due to arable farming, soils have lost around 26 GtC relative to a counterfactual natural state in 1975. Yet, within the period 1975–2010 this SOC debt has been decreasing again by a net quantity of 4 Gt SOC, which can be mainly traced back to an increased input of C in crop residues due to higher crop productivity. We also find that SOC is very sensitive to management decisions such as residue returning indicating the necessity to incorporate better management data in soil model simulations.


2008 ◽  
Vol 88 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joann K Whalen ◽  
Hicham Benslim ◽  
You Jiao ◽  
Benjamin K Sey

Compost contributes plant-available nutrients for crop production and adds partially decomposed carbon (C) to the soil organic carbon (SOC) pool. The effect of compost applications and other agricultural practices on SOC and total nitrogen (N) pools was determined in a sandy-loam Humic Gleysol at the Research Farm of McGill University, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec. Experimental plots with continuous silage corn (Zea mays L.) and silage corn-soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) production were under conventional tillage (CT) or no-tillage (NT) management. Composted cattle manure was applied each spring at rates of 0, 5, 10 and 15 Mg (dry weight) ha-1 and supplemental NPK fertilizers were added to meet crop requirements. The C input from crop residues was affected by tillage, crop rotations and compost application, but differences in the SOC and total N pools were due to compost applications. After 5 yr, compost-amended plots gained 1.35 to 2.02 Mg C ha-1 yr-1 in the SOC pool and 0.18 to 0.24 Mg N ha-1 yr-1 in the total N pool, as compared with initial pool sizes when the experiment was initiated. These gains in SOC and total N were achieved with agronomic rates of compost and supplemental NPK fertilizers, selected to match the phosphorus requirements of silage corn. Such judicious use of compost has the potential to increase the SOC and total N pools in agroecosystems under annual crop production. Key words: Composted cattle manure, corn silage, mineral fertilizer, plant-available nitrogen, soil organic carbon


2018 ◽  
Vol 18(33) (1) ◽  
pp. 100-110
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Komor

The aim of the article was to identify and assess the spatial diversity of agricultural biomass production of plant origin in EU countries as the basic raw material used to create bioproducts and bioenergy. The study uses statistical data obtained from EUROSTAT. The research period covered 2015. Descriptive and parametric statistics were used to interpret the study, and also the indicators of structure, density and intensity were used, as well as the Pearson correlation coefficient. The study found that in 2015 about 51,5% of plant biomass in agriculture produced in the EU were by-products - derived from crop residues, fodder crops and grazed biomass. The production of plant biomass was characterized by considerable spatial differentiation both in relation to biomass derived from arable crops (the leaders in this respect were: France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland) as well as to other biomass (Germany, France, Poland, Great Britain and Italy had the largest share). In 2015, nearly ¾ of the plant biomass produced in the EU was produced in seven countries (i.e. Germany, France, Poland, Great Britain, Spain, Italy and Romania). The analysis also included the dependences among the size of biomass production, the population potential of the country (measured by the share in the EU population) and the production potential of agriculture (measured in the share of agricultural land in the EU). This allowed the designation of four groups of countries.


Author(s):  
Sunil Kumar Dadhich ◽  
Govind Kumar Yadav ◽  
Kamlesh Yadav ◽  
Chiranjeev Kumawat ◽  
Mahesh Kumar Munalia

Burning of crop residues have become a challenging issue for scientist’s community as well as policy makers worldwide as it directly affects environment, soil health and the productivity of crops. Microbial mediated recycling of crop residues into an amorphous dark brown to black colloidal humus like substance under conditions of optimum temperature, moisture and aeration is need of the hour. Crop residue recycling increases sequestration of organic carbon in soil which ultimately leads to improve soil physical, chemical and biological health. Organic carbon acts as a reservoir for nutrients, needed in crop production. Crop residue management recycling is a cost-effective option for minimizing agriculture's input with maximizing output. Besides supplying nutrients to the current crop, their residual effects on succeeding crops in the system are also important. This review emphasizes on crop residue recycling by different techniques. This review paper maybe helpful to the policy makers and researchers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 141-148
Author(s):  
Maksim KULIK ◽  
Ruslan RUDENKO ◽  
Oleksander ONOPRIENKO

The article is devoted to determining the energy and economic efficiency of biofuel production from by-products of crop production. The following methods were used in the research process: monographic (in studying the economic and energy efficiency of plant biomass production in agricultural enterprises); statistical and economic (estimation of potential efficiency of crop production by-products); comparative analysis (when analyzing the economic efficiency of biomass production depending on crops); energy analysis (energy assessment of crop by-products potential of fields). The yield of basic products was determined by recalculating the yield of each crop to standard humidity and purity. The output of the by-products was established using special methods – a generalized assessment of the technically achievable energy potential of biomass and the methods of calculating the available potential of agro-raw materials. According to the results of the study, the yield level of the main products was analyzed, the economic efficiency of the production of by-products was determined, taking into account the crop residues (straw, stems) of winter wheat, corn, soybeans and sunflowers in the conditions of agricultural enterprises of the Myrhorod district of Poltava region. The amount of energy gain to generate heat is calculated depending on the plant biomass when used as biofuel feedstock. The available crop by-product potential of the crop production was evaluated, followed by the determination of the energy and economic efficiency of biomass. The potential of non-market crop production of winter wheat, soybean, corn and sunflower as alternative fuel and a basis for increasing the profitability of agricultural production has been determined which in the aggregate effect – attests to their profitability. Keywords: main products; by-products; economic efficiency; energy potential.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 348
Author(s):  
Thuy Thu Doan ◽  
Phimmasone Sisouvanh ◽  
Thanyakan Sengkhrua ◽  
Supranee Sritumboon ◽  
Cornelia Rumpel ◽  
...  

Organic amendments may improve the quality of acidic tropical agricultural soils with low organic carbon contents under conventional management (mineral fertilization and irrigation) in Southeast Asia. We investigated the effect of biochar, compost and their combination on maize growth and yield, soil physical, biological and chemical properties at harvesting time at four sites in three countries: Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. Treatments consisted of 10 t·ha−1 cow manure compost and 7 t·ha−1 of Bamboo biochar and their combination. Maize biomass production and cop yields were recorded for two seasons. Elemental content, pH and nutrient availability of soils were analyzed after the first growing season. We also characterized macrofauna abundance and water infiltration. Few changes were noted for maize biomass production and maize cop yield. Soil chemical parameters showed contrasting, site-specific results. Compost and biochar amendments increased soil organic carbon, pH, total K and N, P and K availability especially for sandy soils in Thailand. The combination of both amendments could reduce nutrient availability as compared to compost only treatments. Physical and biological parameters showed no treatment response. We conclude that the addition of compost, biochar and their mixture to tropical soils have site-specific short-term effects on chemical soil parameters. Their short-term effect on plants is thus mainly related to nutrient input. The site-dependent results despite similar crops, fertilization and irrigation practices suggest that inherent soil parameters and optimization of organic amendment application to specific pedoclimatic conditions need future attention.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 458
Author(s):  
Tara A. Ippolito ◽  
Jeffrey E. Herrick ◽  
Ekwe L. Dossa ◽  
Maman Garba ◽  
Mamadou Ouattara ◽  
...  

Smallholder agriculture is a major source of income and food for developing nations. With more frequent drought and increasing scarcity of arable land, more accurate land-use planning tools are needed to allocate land resources to support regional agricultural activity. To address this need, we created Land Capability Classification (LCC) system maps using data from two digital soil maps, which were compared with measurements from 1305 field sites in the Dosso region of Niger. Based on these, we developed 250 m gridded maps of LCC values across the region. Across the region, land is severely limited for agricultural use because of low available water-holding capacity (AWC) that limits dry season agricultural potential, especially without irrigation, and requires more frequent irrigation where supplemental water is available. If the AWC limitation is removed in the LCC algorithm (i.e., simulating the use of sufficient irrigation or a much higher and more evenly distributed rainfall), the dominant limitations become less severe and more spatially varied. Finally, we used additional soil fertility data from the field samples to illustrate the value of collecting contemporary data for dynamic soil properties that are critical for crop production, including soil organic carbon, phosphorus and nitrogen.


Horticulturae ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 205
Author(s):  
Ihab M. Farid ◽  
Mohamed A. El-Ghozoli ◽  
Mohamed H. H. Abbas ◽  
Dalia S. El-Atrony ◽  
Hassan H. Abbas ◽  
...  

Organic amendments are important sources of nutrients that release upon organic matter degradation, yet the stability of these organics in arid and semi-arid regions is relatively low. In contrast, humic substances (HS) are resistant to biodegradation and can keep nutrients in the soil available for the plant over a long time. Combinations between humic substances (HS) and mineral-N fertilizers are assumed to retain higher available nutrients in soils than those recorded for the sole application of either mineral or organic applications. We anticipate, however, that humic substances might not be as efficient as the organics from which they were extracted in increasing NP uptake by plants. To test these assumptions, faba bean was planted in a pot experiment under greenhouse conditions following a complete randomized design while considering three factors: two soils (calcareous and non-calcareous, Factor A), two organics (biogas and compost, Factor B) and combinations of the organics and their extracts (HA or FA) together with complementary doses of mineral-N ((NH4)2SO4) to attain a total rate of 50 kg N ha−1 (the recommended dose for faba bean plants) (Factor C). Results indicated that nitrogenase activity increased significantly due to the application of the used organics. In this respect, compost manure caused higher nitrogenase activity than biogas manure did. Humic substances raised NP-availability and the uptake by plants significantly; however, the values of increase were lower than those that occurred due to the compost or biogas manure. Moreover, the sole application of the used organics recorded the highest increases in plant biomass. Significant correlations were also detected between NP-availability, uptake and plant biomass. This means that HS could probably retain nutrients in available forms for long time periods, yet nutrients released continuously but slowly upon decomposition of organics seemed more important for plant nutrition.


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