Agricultural Mitigation of Climate Change: Potential and Challenges.

Agricultural soils, comprising of about 1500 million hectares (Mha) of croplands and 3500 Mha of grazing/pasturelands, can be source or sink of greenhouse gases (GHGs) depending on land use and management.  Food security being of the highest priority, conversion to a judicious land use and adoption of the soil/site-specific recommended management practices (RMPs) are important to creating a positive ecosystem C budget and making agricultural soils a sink of atmospheric CO₂. The technical potential of C sequestration in agricultural soils is 0.4-1.2 Pg C/yr for croplands, 0.3-0.5 Pg C/yr for savanna/grasslands, and 0.5-1.4 Pg C/yr for restoration of degraded/desertified lands. Realization of this potential, however, depends on incentivization of land managers through just and fair payments for ecosystem services.