GHG Emissions and Carbon Footprint in Two Integrated Farming SystemModelsin Telangana State, India

Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and carbon footprint has become an important objective in farming, besides profitability and sustainability.A study was carried out to compare two different integrated farming system(IFS) modelsin Telangana state, India for their GHG emissions and carbon footprint. Both the IFS models, i.e.,IFS1 with crop+horticulture+2dairy buffaloes+6 goats+50 backyard poultry birds, and IFS2 with crop+horti-pasture+2 indigenous cows+12 goats+160 backyard poultry birds on a 1 ha area were carbon negative and environmentally safe. A total of 2.792 and 2.148 kg nitrous oxide was emitted from the cropping unit of IFS1 and IFS2 respectively. Increasing the area under legumes in the cropping unit of IFS 2 reduced the GHG emissions by 12.9%. Increasing commercial and irrigated dry (ID) crops not only helped increase profitability but also kept the GHG emissions at low levels. Horti-pasture system contributed to the negative carbon footprint by reducing the emission of GHGs, and by increasing the carbon sink. From the livestock unit, due to enteric fermentation, 94 kg of methane emissions were recorded with the improved breed of buffaloes (IFS 1) and 56 kg with indigenous cows (IFS 2). Improvement in soil organic carbon was observed under all cropping systems with the application of 10 Mg ha -1 organic manures each year. Due to manure production, 23.7 and 19.07 kg of methane emissions along with 15.27 and 9.38 kg nitrous oxide emissions were observed over these two years in IFS1 and IFS2 respectively.