ESTIMATION OF CARBON STOCKS IN COFFEE BASED AGROFORESTRY AND ADJACENT CUPRESSUS LUSITANICA PLANTATION AT WONDO GENET COLLEGE, SOUTHEAST ETHIOPIA

Mengistu Teshome,Mesele Negash,Eyob Tadesse,Getachew Tadesse,Firew Bekele

doi:10.26480/ees.01.2020.38.42

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to estimate biomass and soil organic carbon (SOC) stock in coffee based Agroforestry and Cupressus lusitanica plantation. A total of 20 plots of 10 m x 10 m were established systematically in coffee based Agroforestry and Cupressus lusitanica plantation to sample soil and vegetation data. The biomass of shade tree, coffee shrubs and Cupressus lusitanica was estimated by previous allometric equations.Variation in biomass carbon and SOC between the two land use types were tested using analysis of variance. The average amount of biomass carbon stored in coffee based Agroforestry was 109.96 Mg C ha-1. The proportion of total aboveground biomass carbon to the total biomass carbon stock was averaged 61.67% for coffee based Agroforestry.The average total biomass carbon was 74.24 Mg C ha-1 in Cupressus lusitanica plantation. Coffee based Agroforestry had accounted more SOC than Cupressus lusitanica plantation in 0-40 cm soil depth. Our study concluded that coffee based Agroforestry, compared with Cupressus lusitanica plantation, had generally higher biomass carbon and SOC stocks.

Highlights

Agroforestry is a collective name for land use systems and technologies where woody perennials are deliberately used on the same land management unit as agricultural crops and/or animals, either on the some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence (Nair et al, 2009; Nair et al, 2011)
The average amount of biomass carbon stored in CAFs was 109.96 Mg C ha-1
The total biomass carbon stocks of the coffee based Agroforestry in our study were lie between the range for agroforestry systems reported globally (12–228 Mg ha-1) (Bajigo et al, 2015; Soto-Pinto et al, 2010, Luedeling et al, 2011; Nair 2011; Zhang et al, 2018) and reported for Agroforestry systems (22 and 122 Mg ha-1) of south eastern rift valley of Ethiopia (Negash & Starr, 2015), but higher than biomass carbon reviewed for West African Sahel countries by Luedeling and Neufeldt (2012) and to be 9, 21, Cite The Article: Mengistu Teshome, Getachew Tadesse, Eyob Tadesse, Firew Bekele, Mesele Negash (2020).Estimation Of Carbon Stocks In Coffee Based Agroforestry And Adjacent Cupressus Lusitanica Plantation At Wondo Genet College, Southeast Ethiopia

Summary

Introduction

Agroforestry is a collective name for land use systems and technologies where woody perennials (trees, shrubs, and other perennials: palms, bamboos, etc.) are deliberately used on the same land management unit as agricultural crops and/or animals, either on the some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence (Nair et al, 2009; Nair et al, 2011). Agroforestry systems (AFS) have a significant contribution to conserve native biodiversity (Richards & Mendez, 2014; Negash & Starr, 2015) and provide ecosystem services (Soto-Pinto et al, 2010; Richards & Mendez 2013). Agroforestry distinguishes itself from the other systems as a sustainable land use system with a promising potential to sequester atmospheric carbon into biomass as well as soil (Abbas et al, 2017; Agevi et al, 2017; Bajigo et al, 2015). The C sequestration potential of Agroforestry systems is estimated between 12 and 228 Mg ha with a median value of 95 Mg ha-1 (Agevi et al, 2017; Soto-Pinto et al, 2010).

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