Relative Economics for Cultivating Salix alba Plantations for Carbon Trading under Temperate Conditions of Kashmir, India

This investigation was carried out during the years 2010-11 and 2011-12 in the willow plantations established by Plantation Division of State Forest Department in Anantnag, Bandipora, Baramulla and Ganderbal districts of Kashmir valley. The results revealed that willows can store up to 292.98 t C ha -1 and sequester around 1075.24 CO 2 e tons ha -1 . The NPV of future returns derived by discounting both costs and benefits at 12% rate of interest (with and without carbon benefits) are ` 7, 49,406 and 2,14,080 with a benefit cost ratio of 2.93 and 1.55 respectively for a productive rotation of 20 years. Thus enhancing carbon sequestration through commercial plantations of willow can prove to be a long term future policy option for sustained carbon sequestration programme in Jammu and Kashmir where willows alone comprise a total population of > 37 million trees with further scope for expansion as permanent marketable carbon sinks owing to the availability of about 15,082 Km 2 of waste lands that could be used for plantation forestry. The profitability using profit function model indicates that carbon trading with willows in Kashmir is a viable option with net annual profit of ` 29,926 at a discounting factor of 12% and ` 30,654 ha -1 yr -1 at 10 %.