Carbon Farming For Palm Oil Plantation Part 2

Leading plantations and agronomist are searching for better ways to manage land for higher production and healthier profit, as well as a buffer against Climate Change. Soil Health is widely recognized as the key to these benefits, and Soil Carbon is the key to Soil Health.

Carbon Farming is the land management system that is the most effective in responding to Climate Change. It can be used to build a buffer against higher temperatures and lower rain fall. It can cut input costs as it taps into the nutrient reserves and productive capacity hidden in the soil. Carbon farming is the only way to increase soil carbon which the engine room of growth in Agriculture. 

photo taken from here

Increasing soil carbon is likely to enhance the long term sustainability of farms as it plays a central role in the physical, chemical, and biological health of the soil and hence the productive capacity of arable soils. Increasing the biomass input, decreasing the decomposition rate and increasing the potential of a soil to store carbon will all act to increase soil carbon. Soils with the greatest potential to sequester carbon will be those that have suffered a  significant loss of carbon with clearing of native vegetation and have a capacity to increase biomass production or can protect added carbon from decomposition (Baldock et al 2009).


Farmers wanting to build soil carbon may be able to achieve this though maintaining and enhancing vegetation cover, maximizing vegetation growth, minimizing soil disturbance, and changing the soil texture. Activities that broad acre farmers may consider to increase soil carbon include :

·        -Converting cropping land to productive pastures and increasing the pasture phases in crop rotation

·         -Increasing practices to retain stubble

·         -Green manuring, particularly legume crops

·         -The application of soil ameliorants such as biochar, compost, or manure  (Sanderman et al 2010), and

·         -Alterations to soil texture through the addition of clay to lighter textured soils.

Photo taken from here

Palm oil industry in Indonesia & Malaysia which in operations generate a lot of waste biomass and on the other hand requires energy in the form of heat and electricity for the process of the fruits and high productivity of palm oil plants, then very potential to apply the continous slow pyrolysis technology to get energy and biocharnya to carbon farming.

photo's taken from here

Carbon farming is a different way of looking at your land. It gives you a different set of priorities, if you get it right, it can deliver everything you ever wanted to get out of farming. And more…..