Integrated nutrient management - promising way to reduce carbon dioxide and methane emission in flooded rice ecosystem: A review

Climate change is an inevitable ruling issue caused by the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG’s) in the atmosphere worldwide. It will have a considerable impact on agriculture and its related fields like live stocks and fisheries. In India, the main sectors contributing to these emissions are industry, agriculture and waste, with a total emission of 334 MT CO2 eq. Besides, the major sources in agriculture are enteric fermentation (63.4%), rice cultivation (20.9%), agricultural soils (13.0%), manure management (2.4%) and on-field burning is the crop residue (2.0%). Thus, the crop productivity sector (rice cultivation, soil and field burning of crop residues) contributes 35.9% to the total emission from agriculture. Therefore, reducing GHG emissions and enhancing the C sequestration in soil and biomass has become challenging. However, the total GHG’s emission from all sectors of the country has decreased from 33% in 1970 to 18% in 2010. Cutting off GHGs emission from agriculture can be achieved by sequestering C and reducing methane emissions(CH4) and carbon dioxide(CO2) through various soil and crop management strategies. Integrated nutrient management (INM) practice ensures the Soil –plant –atmospheric continuum (SPAC) in a  promising way, reducing the GHGs emission by sequestering more carbon to soil than emissions. A studious prominent INM solution can be identified to develop a mitigation strategy that helps in climate change adaptation and sustains soil health through soil carbon sequestration.