Carbon Sequestration in Agricultural Soils

The purpose of this report is to improve
the knowledge base for facilitating investments in land
management technologies that sequester soil organic carbon.
While there are many studies on soil carbon sequestration,
there is no single unifying volume that synthesizes
knowledge on the impact of different land management
practices on soil carbon sequestration rates across the
world. A meta-analysis was carried out to provide soil
carbon sequestration rates in Africa, Asia, and Latin
America. This is one important element in decision-making
for sustainable agricultural intensification,
agro-ecosystems resilience, and comprehensive assessments of
greenhouse mitigation potentials of Sustainable Land
Management (SLM) practices. Furthermore, the ecosystem
simulation modeling technique was used to predict future
carbon storage in global cropland soils. Last, marginal
abatement cost curves and trade-off graphs were used to
assess the cost-effectiveness of the technologies in carbon
sequestration. The remainder of the report is organized as
follows. Chapter two provides a brief review of soil organic
carbon dynamics and the methods for soil carbon assessment.
The chapter concludes with brief information on carbon
assessment in The World Bank's sustainable land
management projects portfolio. Chapter three reports the
increase in soil carbon for selected sustainable land
management practices in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Chapter four reports the estimates from ecosystem
simulation, while chapter five concludes with the benefits
and costs of adopting carbon sequestering practices and a
discussion of policy options to support climate smart
agriculture in developing countries. The report will provide
a broad perspective to natural resource managers and other
professionals involved in scaling up Climate-Smart
Agriculture (CSA).