Oil Palm Plantation: Carbon Sequestration Potential and Effective carbon Management within Serchhip, Mizoram, India

Abstract

Sustainable management of crop plantations to sequester more carbon is a timely strategy to reduce greenhouse gases, as these have been considered to be potent measures for mitigation of climate change. Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is a proven carbon-sequestering perennial crop by biological means, aiding in the mitigation of global warming and climatic fluctuations. The present study was carried out in Serchhip, Mizoram, India from 5th February to 30th March 2021. All major palm plantation sites located within Serchhip were determined in the study. The carbon store was determined from sample plants of three, six, eight, and ten years. This research adopts a destructive approach to estimate the amount of carbon storage. The investigator surveyed the number of trees and the age of the palm trees with the help of farmers. The results indicates that the trunk stores the largest amount of carbon when compared with other plant parts. However, in a three-year plantation, the fronds store more carbon than the trunk. The study reveals that the amount of carbon sequestered by four, six, eight, and ten-year palm trees were 0.045 t, 0.098 t, 0.276 t and 0.539 t respectively. The total sample surveyed was 1015 standing trees from eight locations, and the carbon stock potential accounting all plantations site within Serchhip was estimated to be 345.1 t/yr. Recently, many farmers are planning of giving up oil palm farming and are likely to replace their oil palm fields with other crops. Uprooting, slashing, and burning is the common practice adopted to clear palm trees, which is believed detrimentally to emit tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. Therefore, the study will be very helpful in decision-making and, consequently selecting a wiser choice for climate change mitigation within Serchhip and, to a larger extent, Mizoram.