COMPARATIVE QUANTIFICATION OF CARBON SEQUESTRATION IN SOLE CROPS AND BAEL BASED AGRI-HORTISYSTEMVivek Yadav and Rajesh Kumar SinghAbstract Carbon sequestration has been proposed as an important means for mitigating climate change, particularly in medium and longer range. Fossil fuels will remain the dominate source of energy well into the 21st century. Carbon sequestration is a potential solution for limiting the atmospheric release of carbon dioxideemissions that may contribute to global warming. A field study was conducted during rainy (kharif) season of 2018 at Agricultural Research Farm in Rajiv Gandhi South Campus, Banaras Hindu University, Barkachha, Mirzapur under two systems, viz., in open system and in bael based agri-horti system. Black gram, sesame, green gram, soybean, and pearl millet were sown solely in open system and also grown in interspaces between the rows of bael trees in 12 year-old agroforestry system. The result showed that in bael based agrihorti system, the bael+soybean variety 'JS-20229' observed significantly higher above ground biomass (4045.71 kg/m2) and below ground biomass (1049.88 kg/m2) over other treatments. Similar trend was observed in case of above ground carbon sequestration (1819.57 kg/m2) and below ground carbon sequestration (472.34 kg/m2). However, in the sole system, the highest above ground biomass (4.22 kg/m2) and below ground biomass (1.10kg/m2) was observed in pearl millet variety 'PHB-2168' which was at par with pearl millet variety 'Nandi-52'. Similarly, in sole crop, maximum above ground carbon sequestration (1.90 kg/m2) and below ground carbon sequestration (0.49 kg/m2) was recorded in pearl millet variety 'PHB-2168'. |