Mitigating climate vagaries through adoption of agroforestry land use in Maharashtra, India

Abstract

Climate change is the leading ecologic, economic and geopolitical issue of the 21st century and has even the potential to rewrite the global equation for prosperity, development and peace. Adoption of agroforestry land use offers viable option for reducing some of the vagaries arising due to climate change especially the elevated level of CO2 and global warming. The realistic estimates of area and C-sequestration potential of agroforestry are essential for assessing its contribution of agroforestry in climate change mitigation. This has more relevance in current scenario when Maharashtra is facing drought condition especially in Marathawada region. The modern technologies like satellite remote sensing can provide spatially explicit information on land covers and natural resources like water. In the present study, estimation of area under tree cover and agroforestry has been done in Latur, Wardha, Nashik, and Thane districts of Maharashtra. The combination of remote sensing technique and CO2FIX model were applied to estimate agroforestry area and carbon sequestration in selected districts. Dynamic CO2FIX model v3.1 was used to assess the baseline carbon, i.e. year of survey (2013) and to estimate the carbon sequestration potential(CSP) of agroforestry systems for a simulation period of 30 years. Estimated area under agroforestry was in the range of 2.84% in Thane to 5.17% in Latur district and C-sequestration potential ranged from 0.06 to 0.41 Mg C/ha/yr. Study concluded that agroforestry has potential for carbon sequestration vis-Ã -vis climate change mitigation and a viable solution for coping the climate vagaries like drought.

Keywords

• Agroforestry
• Climate change
• CO2 FIX model
• Natural resources
• Remote sensing.