Cover crops play an important role in mitigating climate change in several ways. They protect and build healthy soil by preventing erosion, replenishing nutrients, and suppressing weeds without needing herbicides. Research shows cover crops can mitigate warming by sequestering 100-150 grams of carbon per square meter annually. Their canopies also help lower temperatures on sunny days. Additionally, cover crops reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides by fixing nitrogen in the soil and supporting nutrient cycling. Their roots hold soil to prevent erosion and lower surface temperatures while improving soil structure to reduce compaction and machinery usage.
Cover crops play an important role in mitigating climate change in several ways. They protect and build healthy soil by preventing erosion, replenishing nutrients, and suppressing weeds without needing herbicides. Research shows cover crops can mitigate warming by sequestering 100-150 grams of carbon per square meter annually. Their canopies also help lower temperatures on sunny days. Additionally, cover crops reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides by fixing nitrogen in the soil and supporting nutrient cycling. Their roots hold soil to prevent erosion and lower surface temperatures while improving soil structure to reduce compaction and machinery usage.
Cover crops play an important role in mitigating climate change in several ways. They protect and build healthy soil by preventing erosion, replenishing nutrients, and suppressing weeds without needing herbicides. Research shows cover crops can mitigate warming by sequestering 100-150 grams of carbon per square meter annually. Their canopies also help lower temperatures on sunny days. Additionally, cover crops reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides by fixing nitrogen in the soil and supporting nutrient cycling. Their roots hold soil to prevent erosion and lower surface temperatures while improving soil structure to reduce compaction and machinery usage.
Cover crops play an important role in mitigating climate change in several ways. They protect and build healthy soil by preventing erosion, replenishing nutrients, and suppressing weeds without needing herbicides. Research shows cover crops can mitigate warming by sequestering 100-150 grams of carbon per square meter annually. Their canopies also help lower temperatures on sunny days. Additionally, cover crops reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides by fixing nitrogen in the soil and supporting nutrient cycling. Their roots hold soil to prevent erosion and lower surface temperatures while improving soil structure to reduce compaction and machinery usage.
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SST 4304 CLIMATE CHANGE AND AGRICULTURE
ROLE OF COVER CROPS IN MITIGATING CLIMATE CHANGE
BY
WAN AHMAD FARHAN BIN
WAN AHMAD SHABRI ZAINUDDIN
180123
LECTURER: DR. CHRISTOPHER TEH BOON SUNG
FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE
UNIVERSITI PUTRA MALAYSIA
2017/2018 INTRODUCTION
Sustainable agriculture is an agriculture production system that uses one or
more practices that are environmentally sound and socially responsible. Productivity
and profit are still the focus of sustainable agriculture, but they must be achieved with
the care of the environment and well-being of the farm household and local
community. Sustainable agriculture deliberately lowers artificial or synthetic inputs and
non-renewable energy sources, and replaces them with natural materials or methods.
This is done through several sustainable agriculture practices, such as integrating
livestock and crops, reducing or eliminating tillage, or planting cover crops.
COVER CROPS
A cover crop is a crop grown primarily for the protection and enrichment of the
soil. They are planted during off-season times when soils might otherwise be left bare.
These crops protect and build soil health by preventing erosion, replenishing soil
nutrients, and keeping weeds in check, reducing the need for herbicides. Several
common cover crops in Malaysia are Mucuna bracteata, Pueraria javanica, and
Pueraria phaseoloides.
ROLE OF COVER CROPS IN MITIGATING CLIMATE CHANGE
Cover crops may be used to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Some
research has shown that cover crops were able to mitigate warming by 100 to 150
grams of carbon per square meter per year, which is comparable to mitigation from
transitioning to no-till farming. The presence of cover crops with higher canopy albedo
would help lower temperature during sunny days. Other than that, they could reduce
the amount of energy spent in synthesizing chemically made fertilizers, herbicides,
and pesticides. Legumes such as Mucuna and Pueraria help convert nitrogen gas in the atmosphere into soil nitrogen that plants can use, thus reducing the need to apply
fertilizers. Increasing use of cover crops also increase microbial populations and
increase nutrient cycling. Soil erosion is prevented as the roots of these cover crops
hold them, besides helping to reduce soil surface temperature. Besides that, they can
relieve soil compaction by improving structure of over tilled soil. Through this,
machinery usage can be reduced, thus reducing the amount of energy used, besides
