DOI: https://doi.org/10.21276/AATCCReview.2025.13.01.280

Abstract

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.

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