India’s mango orchards absorbed 285mn tonnes of C02 in 40 years

India’s mango orchards sequestered 285 million tonnes (mt) of carbon dioxide (CO2) during its lifetime (35-40 years), equivalent to greenhouse gas emissions from

India’s mango orchards sequestered 285 million tonnes (mt) of carbon dioxide (CO2) during its lifetime (35-40 years), equivalent to greenhouse gas emissions from sixty million (60,509,554) passenger vehicles driven in a year or CO2 emissions from 73 coal-fired power plants annually, scientists have found.

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Carbon dioxide is the most commonly produced greenhouse gas. Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. Estimates of carbon stocks and stock changes in fruit orchards are necessary under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol.

This is the first time the country has collated carbon pool data (soil carbon stocks, litter and weed biomass carbon) as well as information on carbon credits for mango orchards in India.

The findings were published in a study by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR)-Indian Institute Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bengaluru, which found India was one of the largest carbon-absorbing nations from mango orchards globally and identified carbon sequestered across states that cultivate mango. “In the era of dwindling forests, this is how we can bring more area under green cover. Mango being the dominant fruit crop of India, its cultivation is going to increase as demand grows,” said AN Ganeshamurthy, lead author of the paper.

Among cultivated fruit trees like mango, apple, citrus, guava, sapota, ber, fig, mango sequesters maximum carbon, the study found. “India needs to generate information on these lines to defend our claim in world climate change conferences and through this, reap the benefits of carbon credits,” added Ganeshamurthy.

Mango orchards across Andhra Pradesh sequestered the highest amount of CO2 (45.6 mt), followed by Telangana (24.2mt), and together the two states have maximum area under mango cultivation (5.13 lakh hectares) in India, which sequestered 69.98mt of CO2 (equal to CO2 emissions from 18 coal-fired power plants in a year). Uttar Pradesh ranked third with (35.58mt), Karnataka (29.57 mt), Odisha (21.07mt) and Bihar (20.09mt).

According to UNFCCC, India is among the top 10 in greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, estimated at around 5.4 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent in 2017.

“India can claim carbon credits from the offset of 285 mt of carbon sequestered by orchards during trade negotiations internationally. Benefits acquired can be presented to state governments, which further help local communities by providing equipment, labour, land, transportation cost etc.,” said Ganeshamurthy.

Hindustan Times had reported in May that the Alphonso mango orchards in the Konkan belt sequestered (Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka) 9.9 mt of C02, equivalent to CO2 from burning 54,084 railway wagons of coal.

IIHR researchers Ganeshamurthy, V Ravindra and TR Rupa, in over six years under ICAR’s national project National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA), estimated carbon sequestration in different mango belts of the country through extensive sampling and collection of allometric data. Carbon equivalence was calculated using the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator.

Experts not part of the study said carbon sequestration by mango is an additional benefit as different types of forests [which sequestered 90 mt carbon in India in 2017] were still the largest carbon sinks. “While it is a mandate for the country to quantify carbon pool from agriculture, we must remember it does not come at the cost of destroying forests,” said Rajesh Kumar, ex-deputy director general, Forest Survey of India. “We make it absolutely clear that forests are not replaced by mango orchards,” said Ganeshamurthy. “Mango is cultivated only on agricultural lands, which are converted in to a form of agroforestry, and these orchards more or less behave like forests. Planners and administrators must see to it that the benefits (in the form of carbon credits) are passed on to the farmers.”

The study concluded that conservation horticulture must be promoted rather than the conventional intensive cultivation which is economically sustainable and enhances carbon sequestration and improves soil health. “We must partially diversify agriculture through promotion of perennial horticulture,” said Ganeshamurthy.