Carbon Sequestration by Direct Seeding of Wheat in Setif High Plains (North East Of Algeria)

Abstract

Direct seeding is an important element of conservation agriculture; it contributes to environmental conservation and to sustainable agricultural production. Conservation agriculture increases carbon concentrations in the topsoil. It can also reduce the amount of fossil fuel consumed in intensive tillage and by other farm operations, and thus decrease the rate of CO2 build-up in the atmosphere. Today, the global area of no-till farming is more than 100 million hectares. Setif high plains (north east of Algeria) is characterized by a semi arid climate with a long-term average annual precipitation ranging between 300 and 400 mm, the dry-farming system is commonly used, it is based on cereal/sheep production, the straw is used as main feed for livestock. In this region, direct seeding of cereals has recently been adopted, there is almost 9 years. The objective of this study was to quantify the carbon sequestered in the field by direct seeding of wheat. The experiment was conducted at the Setif ITGC experimental site during the 2010/2011 cropping season. The results indicate that dry straw left by the durum wheat varieties varies between 343 and 537 g/m2. It varies between 251 and 643 g/m2 for bread wheat genotypes. Thus, the average amount of carbon sequestered each year is 260 gC/m2 and 257 gC/m2 successively for durum and bread wheat where the genotypes MBB and WAHA have high values of GY and C for durum wheat and RMADA have high values of GY and C for bread wheat. The direct seeding of wheat, relatively to conventional till, can reduce the use of fuel by 50–70 %, machinery requirements by 60 %, resulting in a decrease in production costs. Thus, a combination of the economic and environmental benefits through reduced labor requirements, time savings, reduced machinery and fuel savings, direct seeding has universal appeal. Indirect measures of social benefits as society enjoys a better quality of life from environmental quality enhancement will be difficult to quantify. Conservation agriculture, working in harmony with nature, enables the protection of nonrenewable natural resources and their preservation for future generations can be beneficial for feeding and greening the world.