New sampling strategy to estimate biomass yield and carbon sequestration potential of banana crops in India’s tropical semi-arid region

Abstract

India is the largest producer of bananas. Once bananas are harvested, the remaining standing plants are considered residues but have enormous biomass potential. These biomass residues have applications in biofuel production, soil remediation, water treatment, and food and packaging industries. The standing biomass can be estimated by allometry, which relies on the tree’s measurable parameters like diameter or circumference and the specific height at which the circumference is measured. This study adopted a unique approach for developing allometric models that estimate the biomass, carbon stock, and carbon abatement potential of the Musa species cultivar Karpooravalli in tropical semi-arid India. The plant’s pseudostem structure was considered a cone frustum and right cylinder to develop models; non-destructive and destructive measurements on 40 Karpooravalli plants were done at two sites to build nine allometric models. Among the models, models 8 and 9 best predict above-ground biomass (AGB). The average AGB of this study is 60.36 kg. The AGB’s average moisture is 89.26%, and the average carbon content is 0.4525 kg/kg; these values are integrated with the best model of this study to determine the carbon storage and CO2 abatement potential. Tiruchirappalli and Erode clusters have a combined carbon storage capacity of 36.857 Gg and carbon abatement potential of 0.13526 MtCO2 annually. This allometric method reduces the fieldwork and saves time in biomass estimation as the biomass finds its application in product development sectors. The circumference measurement at 1.75 m height from ground level is the ideal height to obtain the optimum biomass yield of Karpooravalli, rather than the usual 1.3 m height measurement.