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Carbon Management in Diverse Land-Use Systems of Eastern Himalayan Subtropics

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Carbon Management in Tropical and Sub-Tropical Terrestrial Systems

Abstract

The north eastern region (NER) of India has ~48% degraded land of its total geographical area of 26.23 m ha. Shifting cultivation, cultivation along the slope, poor soil conservation measures, extractive farming practices like excessive disturbance of soil in sloping lands, no or very low application of organic manure and fertilizer, residue burning, deforestation, etc., are the major causes of land degradation in the NER. Improving carbon (C) status of the soil and maintaining it at critical level (1.5% or more) through Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) in subtropical hill ecosystems offers an opportunity for sustainable agriculture and environmental security. Among the NER states, Tripura has highest area (>89%) under relatively low soil organic carbon (SOC) content (1.0–1.5%) followed by Assam (62.83%) and Meghalaya (19.9%). Whereas, SOC content in mid and high attitude areas of the NER ranges from 1 to 3.5% or more with trend of increasing SOC as altitude increases. In general, soils in the tropical and subtropical ecosystems of the NER have lower SOC than those of temperate and alpine ecosystems. Practising Integrated Farming System, conservation agriculture, location-specific agroforestry system, multiple cropping, crop intensification and diversification, rehabilitation of degraded lands through appropriate amelioration measures like liming, organic amendments, etc. have the potential to restore SOC content, improve agricultural productivity and will help in the advancement of food and nutritional security in the region.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Lembucherra, India

    Anup Das, G. S. Yadav & R. S. Meena

  2. ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya, India

    Anup Das, Jayanta Layek & S. Babu

  3. Carbon Management and Sequyestreation Centre, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    R. Lal

  4. National Agricultural Higher Education Project, ICAR, New Delhi, India

    P. K. Ghosh

Authors
  1. Anup Das
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  2. G. S. Yadav
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  3. Jayanta Layek
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  4. R. Lal
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  5. R. S. Meena
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  6. S. Babu
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  7. P. K. Ghosh
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, Delhi, India

    Probir K. Ghosh

  2. Plant Animal Relationship Division, IGFRI, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Sanat Kumar Mahanta

  3. ICAR, Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    Debashis Mandal

  4. Agricultural Chemistry & Soil Science, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, West Bengal, India

    Biswapati Mandal

  5. Crop Production Division, Indian Grassland & Fodder Research Institute, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Srinivasan Ramakrishnan

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Das, A. et al. (2020). Carbon Management in Diverse Land-Use Systems of Eastern Himalayan Subtropics. In: Ghosh, P., Mahanta, S., Mandal, D., Mandal, B., Ramakrishnan, S. (eds) Carbon Management in Tropical and Sub-Tropical Terrestrial Systems. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9628-1_8

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