Carbon Stock Assessment of Selected Agroforestry Systems in Benguet

Abstract

Agroforestry is a sustainable land use management system and has great role in adapting to expected changes in climate by small holder farmers. The provision of permanent cover such as trees served as important carbon stocks and the practice can reduce carbon emission. Nevertheless, very few studies investigated the potential of Agroforestry to sequester carbon. The objective of this study is to evaluate and compare the carbon stocks of the different components of agroforestry systems that are commonly practiced in Benguet and to identify practices that can help improve carbon sequestrations of agroforestry farms. Representative farms of the most commonly practiced agroforestry systems from Atok, Tuba, La Trinidad and Sablan were surveyed for their carbon stocks in 2014. Results indicate that the most commonly practiced agroforestry systems were chayote and coffee-based agroforestry systems. In all the agroforestry farms evaluated, the bulk of the carbon stock comes from their tree and soil components and the carbon density and CO2 sequestered are highest among chayote-based farm (208.2 t ha-1), anthurium-based agroforestry (171.45 t ha-1) and the vegetable-based agroforestry with coffee(156.16 t ha-1). Further, practices that increase tree components and vertical layering in crops as well soil and water conservation measures can help improve Carbon sequestration in an agroforestry farm.