Isramart : Crop plants can help absorb carbon dioxide emissions: Expert

Isramart news:
While it has often been blamed for adding to atmospheric carbon problems, the agriculture sector could be absorbing carbon emissions if farmers grow the right plants, an expert says.

Professor Richard Bush of Southern Cross University (Australia) told an audience of students and lecturers in Jakarta that certain plants could be utilized for carbon sequestration (storing carbon dioxide) to reduce atmospheric carbon and control climate change.

"...when plants accumulate silica, as part of their cellular structure, they also accumulate a small fraction of carbon," Bush said.

The ability to capture carbon varies among plant species and varieties, he said.

“This variability can be harnessed and we see it as a potential way to capture and reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” Bush said.

By selecting certain varieties of crop plants, farmers could help accumulate carbon and return it to soil in a secure way, he said.

Plants with high carbon-storing capacities include wheat, bamboo, sugarcane and rice, Bush said.

With this selection of crop types, up to 11 percent of the annual global carbon dioxide emissions could be captured, he said.

Fahrizal Hazra, a lecturer at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), said the discovery of the role of crop plants in mitigating the greenhouse effect could help improve the image of agriculture.