Abstract

Atmospheric rise of CO₂, N₂O and CH₄ over years, accelerated increase in global temperature, has led to uncertainty in monsoon rainfall and also leading to recurrence of drought, which in turn is severely affecting crop productivity and livelihood security of the farmers in Semi Arid Tropics. Agriculture contributes considerable amount of CO₂, N₂O and CH₄ emission into the atmosphere through different soil and crop management practices. Nevertheless agricultural activities contribute to global warming. The medium of crop production, soil is one of the major sinks of global warming gaseous and it helps to sequester more carbon and cut the N₂O emission by adopting smart soil and crop management techniques. Biochar is one of the viable organic amendments to combat climate change and sustain the soil health with sustainable crop production. It is an anaerobic pyrolysis product derived from organic sources and store carbon on a long term basis in the terrestrial ecosystem and also capable of reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) emission from soil to the atmosphere. Biochar application improved the soil health, increase the carbon capture and storage, reduce the GHG emission and enhance the crop yield with sustained soil health, which enables to meet out the food grain needs of the ever growing population. 

Key words: Biochar, carbon sequestration, climate change, soil health, crop yield.

Abbreviation

P. Kannan¹*, P. Arunachalam¹, G. Prabukumar¹ and M. Govindaraj^1,2