Improving Agricultural Carbon Sequestration Strategies by Eco Friendly Procedures for Managing Crop Residues and Weeds

With the advent of sustainable agricultural practices it is welcoming that farmers and scientists are concentrating not only on crops and yield but also on soil health and environment. Emission of greenhouse gases due to agricultural practices is contributing to climate change. Carbon sequestration is one of the important strategy for mitigating climate change by reducing the emissions of carbon from agricultural practices and at the same time it can improve soil fertility by storing carbon in plant biomass and soil. Carbon sequestration strategy in which tillage is completely eliminated is called as zero tillage or no-tillage. In this practice crop is directly sowed in to the untilled soil, it results in carbon sequestration. It is an environmentally safe procedure reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, reducing water loss by runoff and also prevents soil erosion. Herbicides are being used to replace mechanical ploughing, to combat weeds or undesirable plants that compete with the crop for nutrients. Usage of the herbicides is a harmful procedure that has a negative impact on environment. Herbicides can reduce the number of beneficial microorganisms in the field and in addition herbicides usage results in super weeds. The damage caused by herbicides on microbial population is unknown in a large extent as many millions of soil microbes are still undiscovered. Crop residue burning after crop harvesting is a problem creating air pollution. Burning crop residues in the fields results in air pollution. To overcome this problem crop residues are left on the surface of the soil as a source of manure. In this process, microorganisms are expected to involve in residue degradation. Soil is a rich source of microorganisms due to no-tillage soil is not mixed with crop residues when there is no proper contact between crop waste and soil microorganisms, residues take long time to get converted to manure. There is an urgent need to develop technological methods in agriculture that do not cause damage to environment. This chapter focuses on alternative methods discovered and well described eco-friendly procedures that must be followed to manage crop residues and weeds.