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Challenges in agroforestry mapping for carbon sequestration through

remote sensing and CO 2 Fix model in Guna district

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58 Indian J. of Agroforestry Vol. 18 No. 1 : 58-62 (2016)

Challenges in agroforestry mapping for carbon sequestration through

remote sensing and CO2 Fix model in Guna district
R.H. Rizvi, Ram Newaj, Amit Kumar Jain*, O.P. Chaturvedi, Rajendra Prasad,
Badre Alam, A.K. Handa, Chavan Sangram, Abhishek Maurya, P.S. Karmakar, A. Saxena
and Gargi Gupta
ICAR- Central Agroforestry Research Institute, Gwalior Road, Jhansi -284 003. U.P., India.
*Corresponding authors Email: diggijain@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Global warming is becoming a huge problem for our mother earth due to carbon emission in the wake of
modernization and urbanization. Carbon sequestration is a phenomenon for the storage of CO2 or other forms of carbon
to mitigate global warming. Remote sensing becomes an effective tool for mapping and monitoring of agriculture, forestry
and other earth features. Agroforestry mapping is an important parameter for developmental planning at regional and
national level. The present study aims at estimating area and carbon sequestration potential under agroforestry in Guna
district of Madhya Pradesh. RS-2/ LISS-III remote sensing data was used to identify agroforestry, forest/ non-forest land
uses and land covers. It was estimated that about 3.55 percent of the district area under agroforestry. Dynamic CO2FIX
model v3.1 was used to assess the baseline (2011) carbon and to estimate carbon sequestration potential (CSP) of
agroforestry systems for a simulation period of 30 years in Guna district. The estimated numbers of trees existing on
farmer’s field was 6.40 per hectare. The baseline standing biomass in the tree components was 3.99 Mg DM ha-1 and the
total biomass (tree + crop) was 9.55 Mg DM ha-1 in the district. The CSP of existing agroforestry systems for simulation
period of thirty years was estimated to the tune of 0.159 Mg C ha-1 yr-1.
Key word: Agroforestry mapping, carbon sequestration, CO2FIX model, climate change and remote sensing.

Received on: 04/05/2016 Accepted on: 09/06/2016

1. INTRODUCTION biomass production Newaj and Dhyani, 2008; Dhyani

Carbon sequestration is a phenomenon for the storage
of CO2 or other forms of carbon to mitigate global
warming. Through biological, chemical or physical
processes, CO 2 is captured from the atmosphere.
Carbon sequestration is a way to mitigate the
accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
released by the burning of fossil fuels and other
anthropogenic activities.
Agroforestry is a viable alternative to prevent and
mitigate climate change. IPCC recognized agroforestry
as having high potential for sequestering carbon under
the climate change mitigations strategies (Watson et
al., 2000). Many studies have reported the carbon
sequestration potential (CSP) of forest and agroforestry
in India (Dhyani et al., 1996; Ravindranath et al., 1997;
Haripriya 2001; Lal and Singh 2000; Swamy et al., 2003;
Swamy and Puri 2005; Ajit et al., 2013). In India, an
average sequestration potential in agroforestry has been
estimated to be 25 Mg C ha-1 over 96 million ha (Sathaye
and Ravindranath, 1998), but there is a considerable
variation in different regions depending upon the
et al., 2009) and method of estimation. Most of the
estimates are based on biomass productivity and do
not take into account contributions such as soil and
others. This is mainly due to absence of a standard
methodology for carbon sequestration potential in Indian
context.
Land use refers to the way in which land has been used
by humans and their habitats, usually with accent on
the functional role of land for economic activities. Land
cover refers to the physical characteristics of earth’s
surface, natural vegetation, water bodies, soil/rock,
artificial cover and others resulting due to land
transformation. In India, agroforestry area through remote
sensing and preliminary estimates were attempted by
Rizvi et al., (2014, 2013). Ahmad et al., (2007) developed
a model for prediction of area under agroforestry in
Yamunanagar district of Haryana State. Statistical
evaluation and identification of villages that have potential
for agroforestry was done by Ahmad et al., (2010) using
GIS. Remote Sensing has become an effective tool for
mapping and monitoring of agriculture, forestry and other

Pankaj\E:\DATA-2014\NRC for Agroforestry, Jhansi\IJAF 18 (1), 2016 Formated articles—MS 10-770

 Challenges in agroforestry mapping for carbon sequestration through remote sensing and CO2 Fix model 59

earth features. A strategy of forest/ non-forest cover
mapping based on remotely sensed data and GIS was
demonstrated by Maurya et al., (2013). Remote sensing
technique has been used f or crop forecasting
(Chaudhary, 1999), crop inventory (Salman and Saha,
1998), estimation of acreage and crop production
(Maurya, 2011), Calculating carbon sequestration
(Tripathi et al., 2010). With the advent of remote sensing,
future planning and management of natural resources
has considerably broadened. The objective of the study
was to estimate area under agroforestry using GIS &
remote sensing and also carbon sequestration potential
of agroforestry systems in Guna district of Madhya
Pradesh.
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
Study Area
Guna the gateway of Malwa and Chambal is located on
the northern-eastern part of Malwa Platue between river
Parbati and Betwa. The District is situated between
latitude 23053" N and 2506’55" N and longitude 76048’
30"E and 780 16’70"E (Fig. 1). The western boundary of
the district is well defined by the river.
Field Survey
In the present investigation stratified random sampling
was used and two block and from each block two
villages were randomly selected. The primary data on
tree species, their number, diameter at breast height
(DBH), crops grown with trees was collected from
farmers’ field. The available tree species were then
grouped into three categories viz. slow, medium and
fast growing tree.
Methodology
The dynamic carbon accounting model CO2FIX v3.1
(Masera et al., 2003; Schelhaas et al., 2004) was used
to assess the baseline carbon and simulating the carbon
sequestration potential (CSP) of agroforestry systems
(AFS) in the district. CO2FIX model has been developed
as part of the CASFOR II project. It is a user-friendly
tool f or dynamically estim ating the carbon
sequestration potential of forest management,
agroforestry and afforestation projects. This model
consists of six modules viz biomass module, soil
module, products module, bioenergy module, financial
module and carbon accounting module.
For the purpose of simulating carbon stocks under
agrof orestry systems, the modules taken into
considerations are biomass, soil and carbon accounting
modules. CO2FIX model requires primary as well as
secondary data on tree and crop components (called
‘cohorts’ in CO2FIX terminology) for preparing the
account of carbon sequestered under agroforestry
systems on per hectare basis. The primary data
includes tree species existing on farmlands and their
number, DBH, crops grown by farmers on farmlands
along with their productivity, area coverage etc. Whereas
the secondary data includes the growth rates of tree
biomass components (stem, branch, foliage, root) for
various species on annual basis.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Guna district was classified into ten LULC classes viz.
agroforestry, cropland, plantation, forest, degraded
forest, wasteland, grassland, water bodies, built-ups,
and sandy area. With the help of remote sensing/ GIS
technology, the estimated agroforestry area of Guna
district is 3.55 percent (Table 1 and Figure 1).

For mapping agroforestry area in Guna district,

Table 1.Land use and land cover statistics of Guna
Resourcesat-2/ LISS III remote sensing data (spatial
district
resolution 23.5 m) was used for land use/ land cover LULC Classes Area (ha) Area (%)
(LULC) classification. These data (97/54, 14-Oct-2013 Agroforestry 21783.1 3.55
and 97/55, 12-Mar-2013) were visually and digitally Cropland 374158 60.89
Plantation 2982.76 0.49
interpreted using ERDAS 2011 and ArcGIS 9.3 software.
Forest 42434.2 6.91
Classification accuracy was obtained with the help of Degraded forest 121736 19.81
100 GPS points collected from farmers’ fields on Grassland 3061.12 0.50
Wasteland 31489 5.12
agroforestry and thematic maps were finalized.
Sand 1971.48 0.32
Maximum likelihood method of supervised classification Waterbody 12852.6 2.09
was applied for assessment of land uses and land covers Builups 2004.17 0.33
of study districts. Total 614472.43 100
60 Indian J. of Agroforestry Vol. 18 No. 1 : 58-62 (2016)

Fig. 1. Location and LULC map of Guna district

 Challenges in agroforestry mapping for carbon sequestration through remote sensing and CO2 Fix model 61

Table 2.Number of trees per hectare for different site’s climate factors viz monthly average temperature,
categories total precipitation along with its distribution over different
Cohorts Tress category months, evapotranspiration etc. Similar results have
Slow Medium Fast been reported by Singh et al. (2011) that agricultural
growing growing growing
Average number of trees 1.39 3.80 1.20
soils of Indo-Gangetic plains, on an average, contain
per hectare 12.4 to 22.6 Mg ha-1 of organic carbon in the top 1 m
Estimated age of existing 40.3 17.22 9.65 soil depths. Lal (2004) reported that SOC concentration
trees (years)
increased with increased rainfall in several Indian soils.
Table 3.Biomass accumulated and carbon sequestrated under agroforestry system in Guna
-1
Tree Biomass (above and below ground ) Mg DM ha Baseline 3.99
Simulated 10.67
-1
Total Biomass (tree+ crop) Mg DM ha Baseline Biomass 9.55
Simulated 16.45
-1
Soil carbon (Mg C ha ) Baseline 23.38
Simulated 24.80
-1
Biomass carbon (Mg C ha ) Baseline 4.31
Simulated Carbon 7.59
-1
Total carbon (biomass + soil) (Mg C ha ) Baseline 27.61
Simulated 32.39
-1
Net carbon sequestered in agroforestry systems over the simulated period of thirty years (Mg C ha ) Carbon 4.78
-1 -1
Estimated annual carbon sequestration potential of agroforestry system (Mg C ha yr ) sequestered 0.159

Average numbers of trees per hectare were 1.39, 3.80 4. CONCLUSION

and 1.20 in slow, medium and fast growing groups
Agroforestry systems whether traditional or commercial
respectively and clubbing to a total of 6.40 trees ha-1 in
plays have potential of carbon sequestration in the form
Guna. The average age of the existing trees was 40, 17
of tree biomass and soil carbon. They play a vital role
and 9 years respectively for slow, medium and fast
in mitigating the effects of climate change through
growing trees (Table 2). The secondary data on district
sequestration of atmospheric CO2. CO2FIX model in
wise crop productivity was obtained from NIC (National
conjunction with geospatial technology can be
Informatics Centre, Ministry of Communications and
successfully applied for accurate estimation of area and
Information Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi) and
carbon sequestration under agroforestry at district or
the respective District Statistical Offices. The secondary
region level.
data includes production, productivity and average yield
of district along with land use pattern. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The tree biomass (above and below ground) increased
from 3.99 to 10.67 Mg DM ha-1. The soil carbon for Guna
district is expected to increase from 23.38 to 24.80 Mg
C ha-1 for thirty year simulation. Biomass carbon and
total carbon has been estimated to be 4.31 and 27.61
Mg C ha-1 for baseline. This has become 7.59 and 32.39
Mg C ha-1 for simulated period of 30 years. Net carbon
sequestered was estimated to be 4.78 Mg C ha-1 in 30
years period. In this way, carbon sequestered at district
level would be 0.104 million tC. The CSP of existing
agroforestry system was estimated to 0.159 Mg C ha-
1 -1
yr in Guna (Table 3).
The CSP increased with increasing tree density (number
of tree per hectare). The CSP was influenced by the
Authors are thankful to ICAR for funding NICRA project
and authors are also thankful to the Director, CAFRI,
Jhansi for providing all kind of support for this project.
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