Strategic Management of Grazing Grassland Systems to Maintain and Increase Organic Carbon in Soils

Mohammad I. Khalil, Rosa Francaviglia, Beverley Henry, Katja Klumpp, Peter Koncz, Mireia Llorente, Beata Emoke Madari, Miriam Munoz-Rojas and Rainer Nerger

A chapter in CO2 Sequestration from IntechOpen

Abstract: Understanding management-induced C sequestration potential in soils under agriculture, forestry, and other land use systems and their quantification to offset increasing greenhouse gases are of global concern. This chapter reviews management-induced changes in C storage in soils of grazing grassland systems, their impacts on ecosystem functions, and their adaptability and needs of protection across socio-economic and cultural settings. In general, improved management of grassland/pasture such as manuring/slurry application, liming and rotational grazing, and low to medium livestock units could sequester C more than under high intensity grazing conditions. Converting cultivated land to pasture, restoration of degraded land, and maximizing pasture phases in mixed-cropping, pasture with mixed-livestock, integrated forestry-pasturage of livestock (silvopastoral) and crop-forestry-pasturage of livestock (agro-silvopastoral) systems could also maintain and enhance soil organic C density (SOC?). In areas receiving low precipitation and having high erodibility, grazing exclusion might restore degraded grasslands and increase SOC?. Yet, optimizing C sequestration rates, sowing of more productive grass varieties, judicial inorganic and organic fertilization, rotational grazing, and other climate-resilient approaches could improve overall farm productivity and profitability and attain sustainability in livestock farming systems.

Keywords: carbon sequestration; grazing grassland; silvopastoralism; integrated land uses; livestock farming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ito:pchaps:182209

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.84341

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