Carbon flux and net primary production in mineral soil-based tropical agricultural land: a study case corn and peanut crops

Agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and crop management practices can influence carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) emissions. This study aimed to evaluated the crop yield and carbon fluxes of corn and peanut crops. The research was conducted from November to June during the dry season in Ranca Bungur District, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, where we monitored soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes alongside Net Primary Production (NPP) in corn and peanut fields. Carbon flux was measured using the closed chamber method, and NPP was calculated by multiplying the total plant biomass at harvest by its carbon content. The result showed that the corn field had higher CO2 emissions (4.35 ± 1.09 g C-CO2 m-2 d-1) compared to the peanut field (2.59 ± 0.71 g C-CO2 m-2 d-1), while CH4 emissions were low in both fields but slightly higher in the peanut field (0.26 ± 0.69 mg C-CH4 m-2 d-1) than in the corn field (0.08 ± 0.46 mg C-CH4 m-2 d-1). Furthermore, the study found that corn had a higher NPP than peanuts, resulting in a positive correlation between carbon emission and NPP in both fields. The study suggests that increasing NPP could reduce carbon emissions and fix more carbon into the system.