RI farmers can join fight against climate change

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 10/02/2007 3:46 PM  |  Opinion

Tomohide Sugino, Bogor, West Java

Carbon sequestration is one of the possible solutions to global climate change. It means facilitating the redistribution of carbon from the air.

For example, CO2 from thermal power plants can be captured from the exhaust, transported to the deposit site (such as the abandoned oil fields or the deep seabed) where CO2 would be injected and stored.

Some industrialized countries with sufficient technologies expect these geologic and oceanic carbon sequestrations would be an effective measurement to meet their obligation of carbon emission reduction under the Kyoto Protocol.

While some critics express suspicion around the negative impacts to the ecosystem, long term stability of sequestered carbon and cost performance.

On the other hand, terrestrial carbon sequestration is a more natural and environmentally friendly practice to absorb CO2. It uses the biomass (trees, plants and crops) and soils as carbon storage.

Forests can work as a large carbon sink. If we plant trees in the denuded lands and conserve existing forest through improved management procedures, the total biomass in the forests would increase and could contribute to decreasing CO2 in the atmosphere.

Agricultural carbon sequestration uses agricultural land as a carbon sink. The amount of soil organic carbon is approximately twice as much as carbon in the atmosphere. It is a dynamic carbon pool which continuously releases and fixes carbon through photosynthesis of crops, manure application and decomposition by microorganism.

In conventional agricultural practices, farm land works as a carbon source because of the disturbance of soil and exploitative practices in the modern farming system, which relies on chemical fertilizers and applies less manure.

If we can increase soil carbon more than its decomposition, or reduce the amount of decomposing organic material in the fields, soil can work as a carbon sink.

Soil carbon can be increased by adopting various practices that increase the influx of organic material into the fields, or that reduce soil disturbance and therefore slow down carbon oxidation. These practices include increased manure application, introduction of green crops, minimum to no tillage, mulching and erosion control.

Agricultural carbon sequestration offers various benefits to farmers as well as contributing to mitigating climate change. Increased soil organic carbon works as moderate source of plant nutrient. It also improves the physical structure of soil such as retention ability of nutrient components and water holding capacity. It also prohibits run-off of nutrient components. The practices recommended to increase soil carbon are almost the same as the practices which can increase productivity of farm land and reduce the environmental damages of agricultural ecosystems.

However, these practices will cost farmers more. They need to apply approximately 40 times amount of compost if they want to substitute all the nitrogen contained in urea. If subsidized urea costs Rp 1,200 per kg and the price of ready-made cow manure compost containing 1 percent of nitrogen is Rp 800 per kg, farmers need to pay 27 times higher for fertilizer. Even in a more moderate scenario where farmers apply compost only as a supplement of chemical fertilizer, it will significantly drive up the production cost of the farmers.

The previous study conducted by Colorado State University in the U.S. identified 1 hectare of farm land in Iowa and Montana can sequestrate 0.06 to 0.52 tons more carbon annually through improved farm managements. If similar effects can be definitely quantified in Indonesia it means Indonesia has an enormous potential carbon sink, as a country with 46 million hectares of agricultural area.

The Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) has been implementing a collaborative research project with the Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development (IAARD) since 2006, which tries to identify the effect of improved soil management of agricultural land in Indonesia.

The research pays special attention to long-term applications of organic materials and improved farm management including decreased soil disturbance and introduction of cover crops during dry season. It will be anticipated to quantify the amount of additional sequestrated carbon through farmers' improved practices, which will be done based on the data accumulation for coming years and the construction of a model to prospect the long-term dynamics of soil organic carbon.

Once quantified the positive impacts, cost will be the important factor to conclude whether agricultural carbon sequestration in Indonesia would be a practical option to mitigate global warming. The very rough estimated cost to reduce one ton of carbon emission is around US$50 in the U.S., $80 in Europe and $110 in Japan.

If Indonesian farmers can increase the storage of carbon in their farmland with cheaper cost than the ones in developed countries, Indonesian farmers may become competitive sellers in the global carbon market. Even though the market price is less than the estimated cost, the farmers can still get some advantages of sustainable agricultural production by improved soil quality while a part of the operational cost is compensated by the sales of carbon credit.

Among the options of terrestrial carbon sequestration, only afforestation and reforestation are eligible to produce Carbon Emission Reduction Credits in the current Clean Development Mechanism. Neither forest conservation activities nor agricultural carbon sequestration are eligible yet.

Even though agricultural sequestration would be ratified in the next commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, there are still various hurdles for farmers to enjoy the benefit. Certification mechanism to determine the eligible farmers' practices would be the major challenges.

It is important for us to carefully observe the conclusion of the 13th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Bali, 3-14 December 2007 and properly reflects its implications to the agricultural policies in order to maximize farmers' welfare as well as mitigate climate risks.

The writer is a senior researcher at the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) and works as a visiting scientist in the Centre for Alleviation of Poverty through Secondary Crops' development in Asia and the Pacific (CAPSA), Bogor, West Java. He can be reached at nasugino@cbn.net.id

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