Ex-Ante Co-Benefit of Orchard Cropping as Climate Resilient Agriculture Practice in Drought Prone Area, Jalna District, Maharashtra, India

Abstract

A Project on Climate Resilient Agriculture (PoCRA) in drought prone regions of Maharashtra is intending to increase farm productivity and income of small land holding farmers. Horticulture plantation activity under project is one of climate resilient agriculture practice supported by PoCRA. About 93 farm plots of horticulture plantation and its co-benefits in Jalna district of Maharashtra have studied. A biomass estimation method was used for the measure of carbon sequestration. This method is essentially requiring plant density, height and girth diameter. It has observed that larger the plant biomass highest will be the carbon sequestered. Also, the number of plants per hectare has impact on biomass accounting. As per the observations, study shows highest to lowest carbon sequestration in plants in following order Pomegranate > Sweet lime > Mango > Guava > Custard apple i.e., respectively 66.38, 65.11, 33.24, 25.68 and 14.9 Kg of carbon sequestered per plant per year. This study primarily focuses on potential of carbon sequestration of horticulture plantation and ex-ante co-benefits in conservation of soil, water, nutrient. From the (PoCRA project) data it has observed that about 2215 ha of land is under fruit crop plantation (till September 2021) sequestering about 52,473.35 tons of CO2 per year. Also, it is expected that soil is conserve directly at these 2215 ha of orchard plantation plots, and 50% area covering drip irrigation conserve the water and nutrient, figured through farmer’s application on portal i.e., for both drip irrigation and plantation. Therefore, it is benefitting farmers economically and sequestering carbon and conserving environment as co-benefit.