Carbon storage and economic efficiency of fruit-based systems in semi-arid region: a symbiotic approach for sustainable agriculture and climate resilience

Abstract

Enhancing our understanding of carbon (C) stock in diverse horticulture and fruit-based agroforestry systems has potential to provide farmers with supplementary advantages in terms of poverty alleviation and livelihood development which can significantly benefit C market initiatives like UN-REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation). Therefore, the current study aimed to assess the biomass accumulation, C storage and economic efficacy of seven agro-ecosystems, namely guava-based agri-horticulture system (AHS), mango-AHS, guava- pure orchard (PO), mango-PO, Indian gooseberry -PO, teak boundary plantation (TBP) and annual cropping system (ACS) under two different landscape positions viz., upland and lowland in the semi-arid region of Vindhyan ranges. The result indicated that mango-AHS accumulated significantly (p < 0.05) higher biomass (26.01 t ha−1) and vegetation C density (13.01 t C ha−1) whereas, soil (35.23 t C ha−1), litter (0.64 t C ha−1), and total C density (46.63 t C ha−1) was maximum under mango-PO closely followed by mango-AHS. The guava-PO system exhibited significantly (p < 0.05) higher C sequestration (2.11 t C ha−1 yr−1), and CO2 abatement (7.76 t CO2 ha−1 yr−1) rate compared to other systems with C credit generation of 129.76 US$ ha−1 year−1. However, mango-AHS was the most lucrative system providing net returns of 4835.48 US$ ha−1 yr−1 and 5.87 benefit–cost ratio. The C credits help in getting farmers an additional income; however, the economic impact of C credit was low (1.16–6.80%) when weighed against the overall economic efficacy of the different systems. Overall, the study concluded that farmers in the region should adopt fruit-based systems, especially agroforestry systems to establish mutually beneficial relationships between mitigation of climate change and livelihood stability. Graphical Abstract: (Figure presented.).