Low Carbon Farming (LCF): Pilot Project Under Voluntary Emission Reduction (VER)
AF Ecology Centre has initiated another process of preparation for taking up a LCF project under VER. It is taken up jointly as a coalition called LCF coalition, by a group of 5 likeminded NGOs, who are also partners of FCN. The 5 NGOs are AF Ecology Centre, PWDS, BEST, SACRED and SEDS. AF Ecology Centre is the lead partner for this Project, EED (Germany) has come forward to fund this pilot project. Environment Defense Fund (EDF) of USA has agreed to provide technical support to LCF. This LCF project brings in additional benefits of carbon revenues to the participating farmers, who practice eco-friendly agriculture practices like low tillage, bio-composting, SRI diversified cropping, tree cropping etc. AF is preparing to take up this project first as a pilot project during the year 2011-12 with about 2000 farmers in about 4000 ha. of land. It is very technical, very new, a path breaking and a long drawn preparatory process even before we take up this pilot project. And also it has some preparatory costs. So, LCF coalition has made a joint proposal to EED for funding the preparatory and pilot phase for which the approval is given for ` 1.38 Crores for the period of 1 year from August 2010 to July 2011.
Such an LCF project when taken up on a scale, supplements and adds additional incentive for farmers to take up eco-friendly agricultural practices like Sustainable Agriculture.
Sustainable Agriculture practices proposed by AF to promote under LCF project.
Accion Fraterna promoting and advocating certain practices which are found useful to sustain agriculture. These practices will be implemented with the farmers’ participation. After establishing that a particular practice is having advantage over conventional practice AF will scale up that particular practice. The additional advantage of these practices is there is reduction in methane and nitrous oxide.
The following are a few practices promoted by AF.
1. SRI method of paddy cultivation:
1.1 Methane reduction:
In SRI method of paddy cultivation the water will not be allowed to inundate the field, instead only slushy/ wet soil conditions will be maintained. This practice will reduce the formation and multiplication of methanogenic bacteria which is the main cause of methane formation and release of methane CH4 in to atmosphere. The advantage of this practice is well known to scientists besides this the water consumption is reduced by 45% to 50%. and also energy saving during crop period.
1.2 Nitrous Oxide reduction by applying liquid bio-fertilizers: Jeevamruth.
Normally farmers are applying nitrogenous fertilizers which are available in market in the form of urea or ammonium sulphate to paddy fields. These chemical fertilizers after coming in contact with water releases nitrous oxide (N2O) after chemical reaction. It has been established N2O is more potential than CO2 and CH4 in global warming contribution.
1. 3 Preparation of ‘JEEVAMRUTH: (Elixir of life), a
liquid biofertilizer.
In had been accepted by microbiologists that 1 gram of cow dung
contains 3,000 millions of useful bacteria, those are useful in providing macro
and micronutrients to the plants and crops.
Ingredients required :( indigenous materials)
1. plstic container 1no. capacity 200 hundred liters.
2. cattle dung 10 kgs.
3. cattle urine 10 lits.
4. black jagery 2 kgs.
5. pulse powder 2 kgs.( horsgram, redgram etc may be prfered)
Preparation: Take 200 liters of water in a drum and mix cattle dung, jagary and pulse powder. To this mixture add 10 liters of cattle urine mix it well and cover the drum with cloth or a gunny bag for air circulation. Make sure to stir the mixture twice a day after 2 or 3 days the mixture will be ready for use as maximum multiplication of bacteria will take place. The multiplication of bacteria will occur once in 20 minutes at this rate in three days it may not be possible to calculate the bacterial population.
The mixture may be used to up to 5 to 7 days but due to lack of space the bacteria dies of suffocation and the mixture emits foul smell. The above mixture may be mixed with irrigation water, may supplied through drip or any other method which is convenient to the farmer.
2. In conventional / traditional paddy cultivation No application of Nitrogenous fertilizers:
2.1 In conventional/traditional paddy cultivation almost all farmers are applying nitrogenous fertilizers irrespective of their economic condition. Nitrogenous fertilizers are being applied in the form of urea and ammonium sulphate. By creating awareness among farmers not to go for high cost chemical fertilizer instead and to shift to use liquid bio-fertilizers not only there is reduction in cost of cultivation as well there is reduction in nitrous oxide (N2O) emission. The chemical fertilizers will have adverse effect on useful soil borne microorganisms.
To mitigate the release N2O we can propose a new practice that is application of liquid bio-fertilizer ‘Jeevmruth’.. It had been established beyond doubt that application of Jeevamrth not only increased yield and quality of grain too. Some may argue when cattle dung, urine mixed with water releases methane CH4 but the amount of release of CH4 is negligible. (The ingredients required and procedure in preparation of bio-liquid fertilizer was explained in 1.3)
3. Frequent draining water from paddy fields reduces methane (CH4) emission.
3.1 In China and Japan the scientists have conducted experiments in paddy fields by frequently draining out the stagnated water from rice fields. They found by quantifying the amount of methane release from the drained out paddy fields has come down drastically. In this practice some may argue the drained out rice fields emit nitrous oxide YES but the amount of N2O release is negligible. Another advantage in this practice is exposing the soil to air the level of oxygen increases in the soil. The plant need not spend energy to build air sack on roots to avoid root rot in stagnated water conditions. (This practice will be tested during the season whether any adverse effect on yield, reduction in water consumption and weed problem)
4. Aerobic paddy/ rice cultivation:
4.1 Aerobic paddy cultivation is common practice in adjoining districts of Anantapur, by using water from tanks, canals and borewells. Aerobic paddy cultivation can be taken up only when there is assured supply of water. Of late the ANGR Agriculture University Hydrabad is also advocating aerobic paddy cultivation and the research is going on to evolve more suitable paddy strains. In this method there is no need of puddling the main field or nursery bed by using water. Land is prepared under dry condition till the land is finely tilled. Paddy can be sown in dry condition or in wet condition.
Advantages of aerobic paddy cultivation:
- In this method there are no water stagnation conditions in the field, so there is no emission of methane (CH4).
- In aerobic paddy cultivation only application of Jeevamruth is recommended instead of nitrogenous fertilizers, thus there is no emission of nitrous oxide N2O.
(If needed the other detail like seed rate, spacing, weeding and other agronomical practices involved in aerobic paddy cultivation will be made available)
5. No application of nitrogenous fertilizers to other annual crops:
5.1 Farmers generally growing other annual crops like groundnut, maize, sorghum, musk melon, water melon and various types of vegetables in irrigable dry (ID) conditions. For these crops after the introduction of GR technologies to obtain higher yields farmers are applying nitrogenous fertilizers in large quantities. To these farmers awareness meetings and capacity building trainings have to be taken up. In these meetings and trainings the services of practicing farmers also may be used to convince farmers about the advantage of using indigenously prepared liquid bio-fertilizers.
This practice is helpful in reducing nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions.
6. Carbon Sequestration through dry land horticulture:
6.1 Erratic raining pattern, harsh climatic conditions, frequent droughts and mono cropping of ground nut are adversely affecting rain fed agriculture. Counter productive high cost and high chemical agriculture leading the farming community to debt trap. To sustain agriculture AF had developed certain diversified cropping models. Where in there is an integration of agriculture, fruit trees, rearing of small ruminants or dairy or both. To sustain agriculture and to attain self sufficiency integration of farming system is a must. These diversified models are strengthened by raising fodder and bio-mass trees on border to fed cattle and small ruminants and to enrich soil.
The farmers are encouraged grow millets and vegetables to have self sufficiency and nutritional security and additional income.
