Assessing the Carbon Sequestration Potential of Coconut Plantation in Vellore District of Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

Agriculture, very often falls victim of climate change around the world. Adopting a cost efficient system of agricultural production with minimal environmental impacts, depends on the selection of best cropping system and associated farming practices. The coconut farming and coconut agroecosystem is one of the country’s largest agricultural systems and sectors that could substantially preserve carbon dioxide (CO2) through sequestration. Tamil Nadu state is one of the largest growers of coconut with an area of 443000 ha. In the present investigation the Vellore district was chosen as study area. Coconut data such as tree diameter and tree height were collected from the Tall (Aliyar nagar 1), Dwarf (Chowghat Orange Dwarf (COD)) and Chowghat Green Dwarf (CGD) varieties at different ages (five, fifteen, twenty and twenty-fifth years) at various plantations of Vellore district. The carbon sequestered by five, ten, fifteen, twenty and twenty-five-years old coconut tall variety trees were found to be 1.32, 1.97, 2.11, 3.10 and 3.96 tons per acre per year, respectively. Similarly, five, ten, fifteen, twenty and twenty-five-year-old coconut dwarf variety could able to sequester 1.45, 1.27, 1.58, 2.03 and 2.63 tons per acre per year, respectively in Vellore district. The C sequestration potential of ten year old coconut tree (Tall or Dwarf) were 18 to 28 kg per tree per year approximately. The fifteen years (2003-04 to 2017-18) coconut plantation of both tall and dwarf varieties in Vellore district had sequestered 1.15 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere.