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Conservation agriculture as a climate change mitigation strategy in Zimbabwe

Conservation agriculture as a climate change mitigation strategy in Zimbabwe

Authors :
Deb O’Dell
Neal S. Eash
Bruce B. Hicks
Joel N. Oetting
Thomas J. Sauer
Dayton M. Lambert
Christian Thierfelder
Tarirai Muoni
Joanne Logan
James A. Zahn
John J. Goddard
Source :
International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, Vol 18, Iss 3, Pp 250-265 (2020)
Publication Year :
2020
Publisher :
Taylor & Francis Group, 2020.

Abstract

There is a need to quantify agriculture’s potential to sequester carbon (C) to inform global approaches aimed at mitigating climate change effects. Many factors including climate, crop, soil management practices, and soil type can influence the contribution of agriculture to the global carbon cycle. The objective of this study was to investigate the C sequestration potential of conservation agriculture (CA) (defined by minimal soil disturbance, maintaining permanent soil cover, and crop rotations). This study used micrometeorological methods to measure carbon dioxide (CO2) flux from several alternative CA practices in Harare, central Zimbabwe. Micrometeorological methods can detect differences in total CO2 emissions of agricultural management practices; our results show that CA practices produce less CO2 emissions. Over three years of measurement, the mean and standard error (SE) of CO2 emissions for the plot with the most consistent CA practices was 0.564 ± 0.0122 g CO2 m−2 h−1, significantly less than 0.928 ± 0.00859 g CO2 m−2 h−1 for the conventional tillage practice. Overall CA practices of no-till with the use of cover crops produced fewer CO2 emissions than conventional tillage and fallow.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
14735903 and 1747762X
Volume :
18
Issue :
3
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.02363838c21d42f49a8dd8b60a6360f0
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1080/14735903.2020.1750254