Growing interest in the potential for agricultural soils toprovide a sink for atmospheric carbon has prompted studies of effectsof management on soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration. Adding organic matter to land is good for soil quality and crop yields, both short-term and long-term. While mitigating climate change by off-setting fossil fuel emissions, it also improves quality of soil and water resources, and enhances agronomic productivity. Strategies to increase the soil carbon pool includereducing tillage intensity and frequency, eliminating tillage, changing crop rotations, using winter cover crops, eliminating summer fallow, improving fertilizer management, adjusting irrigation methods, changing grazing regimes, soil restoration and woodland regeneration,water conservation and harvesting, agroforestry practices, and growing energy cropson spare lands. Soil carbon sequestration is a natural, cost-effective, and environ-mentally-friendly process. Once sequestered, carbon remains in the soil as long as restorative land use and best management practices are followed. Creation of a market for reducing carbon emissions would enable farmers to benefit economically from the process.
Atmospheric carbon, Soil organic carbon, Agricultural practices
