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Up to 18 thousand gross tonnes of carbon are stored in worldwide soils, almost double the amount stored in all terrestrial plants and over three times that of the atmospheric pool. The amount of carbon stored in soil possesses the potential to sequester atmospheric carbon — both direct and indirect emission of carbon from agricultural land — and represents 17-32 percent of all global human induced greenhouse gas emission including land use change. Soil productivity, in terms of organic matter and physical and chemical properties, plays a significant role in climate change mitigation and food security. Carbon sequestration also has the potential to offset global fossil fuel emissions by up to 15 percent.
Recent vulnerability assessments show over 40 percent of Hindu Kush (HKH) households are facing de-creasing yields in their five most important crops as a result of floods, droughts, frost, hail, and disease. To cope up with the climate change mountain farmers are changing farming practices, crop varieties, abandoning staple food production and livestock varieties, and are more involved with cash crop production, but these adopted techniques are leading to more vulnerable food security.
A two week field visit was organised to Mustang, Nepal to assess soil productivity, organic carbon and physiochemical characteristics linking to climate change mitigation and food security. At 3,840 meters, Mustang’s rocky highlands comprise barren, agricultural, orchard, forest and degraded shrub lands.
The assessment found most locals are dependent on forest products for cooking and heating fuel during the winter. In areas where possible, Populas ciliate (Bhote Pipal), Salix sps (Bains) and Prunus cerasoids (Painyu) are planted, most planted by Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP).
Soil samples were collected in both upper and lower Mustang from 28 plots. Properties such as pH, soil organic carbon, soil texture and bulk density, cation exchange capacity, total nitrogen, available phos-phor, available potassium will be determined through the sample collections. The collected samples have been brought to Kathmandu University/Aquatic Ecology Center (AEC) for the analysis. Analysis should reveal yield and productivity of the land based on the multiple benefits of soil organic carbon and societal values thereon.
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