Indian J. of Agroforestry Vol. 18 No. 1 : 58-62 (2016)58 Indian J. of Agroforestry Vol. 18 No. 1 : 58-62 (2016)

Challenges in agroforestry mapping for carbon sequestration throughremote sensing and CO2 Fix model in Guna districtR.H. Rizvi, Ram Newaj, Amit Kumar Jain*, O.P. Chaturvedi, Rajendra Prasad,Badre Alam, A.K. Handa, Chavan Sangram, Abhishek Maurya, P.S. Karmakar, A. Saxenaand Gargi GuptaICAR- Central Agroforestry Research Institute, Jhansi -284 003. U.P., India.

*Corresponding author’s Email: diggijain@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Global warming is becoming a huge problem for our mother earth due to carbon emission in the wake ofmodernization and urbanization. Carbon sequestration is a phenomenon for the storage of CO2 or other forms of carbonto mitigate global warming. Remote sensing becomes an effective tool for mapping and monitoring of agriculture, forestryand other earth features. Agroforestry mapping is an important parameter for developmental planning at regional andnational level. The present study aims at estimating area and carbon sequestration potential under agroforestry in Gunadistrict of Madhya Pradesh. RS-2/ LISS-III remote sensing data was used to identify agroforestry, forest/ non-forest landuses and land covers. It was estimated that about 3.55 percent of the district area under agroforestry. Dynamic CO2FIXmodel v3.1 was used to assess the baseline (2011) carbon and to estimate carbon sequestration potential (CSP) ofagroforestry systems for a simulation period of 30 years in Guna district. The estimated numbers of trees existing onfarmer’s field was 6.40 per hectare. The baseline standing biomass in the tree components was 3.99 Mg DM ha-1 and thetotal biomass (tree + crop) was 9.55 Mg DM ha-1 in the district. The CSP of existing agroforestry systems for simulationperiod of thirty years was estimated to the tune of 0.159 Mg C ha-1 yr-1.

Key word: Agroforestry mapping, carbon sequestration, CO2FIX model, climate change and remote sensing.

Received on: 04/05/2016 Accepted on: 09/06/2016

1. INTRODUCTIONCarbon sequestration is a phenomenon for the storageof CO2 or other forms of carbon to mitigate globalwarming. Through biological, chemical or physicalprocesses, CO2 is captured from the atmosphere.Carbon sequestration is a way to mitigate theaccumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmospherereleased by the burning of fossil fuels and otheranthropogenic activities.Agroforestry is a viable alternative to prevent andmitigate climate change. IPCC recognized agroforestryas having high potential for sequestering carbon underthe climate change mitigations strategies (Watson etal., 2000). Many studies have reported the carbonsequestration potential (CSP) of forest and agroforestryin India (Dhyani et al., 1996; Ravindranath et al., 1997;Haripriya 2001; Lal and Singh 2000; Swamy et al., 2003;Swamy and Puri 2005; Ajit et al., 2013). In India, anaverage sequestration potential in agroforestry has beenestimated to be 25 Mg C ha-1 over 96 million ha (Sathayeand Ravindranath, 1998), but there is a considerablevariation in different regions depending upon the

biomass production Newaj and Dhyani, 2008; Dhyaniet al., 2009) and method of estimation. Most of theestimates are based on biomass productivity and donot take into account contributions such as soil andothers. This is mainly due to absence of a standardmethodology for carbon sequestration potential in Indiancontext.

Land use refers to the way in which land has been usedby humans and their habitats, usually with accent onthe functional role of land for economic activities. Landcover refers to the physical characteristics of earth’ssurface, natural vegetation, water bodies, soil/rock,artificial cover and others resulting due to landtransformation. In India, agroforestry area through remotesensing and preliminary estimates were attempted byRizvi et al., (2014, 2013). Ahmad et al., (2007) developeda model for prediction of area under agroforestry inYamunanagar district of Haryana State. Statisticalevaluation and identification of villages that have potentialfor agroforestry was done by Ahmad et al., (2010) usingGIS. Remote Sensing has become an effective tool formapping and monitoring of agriculture, forestry and other

59Challenges in agroforestry mapping for carbon sequestration through remote sensing and CO2 Fix model

earth features. A strategy of forest/ non-forest covermapping based on remotely sensed data and GIS wasdemonstrated by Maurya et al., (2013). Remote sensingtechnique has been used for crop forecast ing(Chaudhary, 1999), crop inventory (Salman and Saha,1998), estimation of acreage and crop production(Maurya, 2011), Calculating carbon sequestration(Tripathi et al., 2010). With the advent of remote sensing,future planning and management of natural resourceshas considerably broadened. The objective of the studywas to estimate area under agroforestry using GIS &remote sensing and also carbon sequestration potentialof agroforestry systems in Guna district of MadhyaPradesh.

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS

Study Area

Guna the gateway of Malwa and Chambal is located onthe northern-eastern part of Malwa Platue between riverParbati and Betwa. The District is situated betweenlatitude 23053" N and 2506’55" N and longitude 76048’30"E and 780 16’70"E (Fig. 1). The western boundary ofthe district is well defined by the river.

Field SurveyIn the present investigation stratified random samplingwas used and two block and from each block twovillages were randomly selected. The primary data ontree species, their number, diameter at breast height(DBH), crops grown with trees was collected fromfarmers’ field. The available tree species were thengrouped into three categories viz. slow, medium andfast growing tree.

Methodology

For mapping agroforestry area in Guna district,Resourcesat-2/ LISS III remote sensing data (spatialresolution 23.5 m) was used for land use/ land cover(LULC) classification. These data (97/54, 14-Oct-2013and 97/55, 12-Mar-2013) were visually and digitallyinterpreted using ERDAS 2011 and ArcGIS 9.3 software.Classification accuracy was obtained with the help of100 GPS points collected from farmers’ fields onagroforestry and thematic maps were finalized.Maximum likelihood method of supervised classificationwas applied for assessment of land uses and land coversof study districts.

The dynamic carbon accounting model CO2FIX v3.1(Masera et al., 2003; Schelhaas et al., 2004) was usedto assess the baseline carbon and simulating the carbonsequestration potential (CSP) of agroforestry systems(AFS) in the district. CO2FIX model has been developedas part of the CASFOR II project. It is a user-friendlytoo l for dynamically es t imat ing the carbonsequestrat ion potential of forest management,agroforestry and afforestation projects. This modelconsists of six modules viz biomass module, soilmodule, products module, bioenergy module, financialmodule and carbon accounting module.For the purpose of simulating carbon stocks underagrofores try systems, the modules taken intoconsiderations are biomass, soil and carbon accountingmodules. CO2FIX model requires primary as well assecondary data on tree and crop components (called‘cohorts’ in CO2FIX terminology) for preparing theaccount of carbon sequestered under agroforestrysystems on per hectare basis. The primary dataincludes tree species existing on farmlands and theirnumber, DBH, crops grown by farmers on farmlandsalong with their productivity, area coverage etc. Whereasthe secondary data includes the growth rates of treebiomass components (stem, branch, foliage, root) forvarious species on annual basis.3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONGuna district was classified into ten LULC classes viz.agroforestry, cropland, plantation, forest, degradedforest, wasteland, grassland, water bodies, built-ups,and sandy area. With the help of remote sensing/ GIStechnology, the estimated agroforestry area of Gunadistrict is 3.55 percent (Table 1 and Figure 1).

Table 1.Land use and land cover statistics of Gunadistrict

LULC Classes Area (ha) Area (%) Agroforestry 21783.1 3.55 Cropland 374158 60.89 Plantation 2982.76 0.49 Forest 42434.2 6.91 Degraded forest 121736 19.81 Grassland 3061.12 0.50 Wasteland 31489 5.12 Sand 1971.48 0.32 Waterbody 12852.6 2.09 Builups 2004.17 0.33 Total 614472.43 100

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Fig. 1. Location and LULC map of Guna district

61Challenges in agroforestry mapping for carbon sequestration through remote sensing and CO2 Fix model

Average numbers of trees per hectare were 1.39, 3.80and 1.20 in slow, medium and fast growing groupsrespectively and clubbing to a total of 6.40 trees ha-1 inGuna. The average age of the existing trees was 40, 17and 9 years respectively for slow, medium and fastgrowing trees (Table 2). The secondary data on districtwise crop productivity was obtained from NIC (NationalInformatics Centre, Ministry of Communications andInformation Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi) andthe respective District Statistical Offices. The secondarydata includes production, productivity and average yieldof district along with land use pattern.

The tree biomass (above and below ground) increasedfrom 3.99 to 10.67 Mg DM ha-1. The soil carbon for Gunadistrict is expected to increase from 23.38 to 24.80 MgC ha-1 for thirty year simulation. Biomass carbon andtotal carbon has been estimated to be 4.31 and 27.61Mg C ha-1 for baseline. This has become 7.59 and 32.39Mg C ha-1 for simulated period of 30 years. Net carbonsequestered was estimated to be 4.78 Mg C ha-1 in 30years period. In this way, carbon sequestered at districtlevel would be 0.104 million tC. The CSP of existingagroforestry system was estimated to 0.159 Mg C ha-

1yr-1 in Guna (Table 3).

The CSP increased with increasing tree density (numberof tree per hectare). The CSP was influenced by the

4. CONCLUSION

Agroforestry systems whether traditional or commercialplays have potential of carbon sequestration in the formof tree biomass and soil carbon. They play a vital rolein mitigating the effects of climate change throughsequestration of atmospheric CO2. CO2FIX model inconjunction wi th geospatial technology can besuccessfully applied for accurate estimation of area andcarbon sequestration under agroforestry at district orregion level.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Authors are thankful to ICAR for funding NICRA projectand authors are also thankful to the Director, CAFRI,Jhansi for providing all kind of support for this project.

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Table 3.Biomass accumulated and carbon sequestrated under agroforestry system in Guna

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