THE PRIVATE ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF SOIL CARBON SEQUESTRATION
Date
2020-07-17
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0000-0001-9513-8261
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
This research aims to quantify how management decisions in the form of annual crop
rotations influence the amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestered and the private
benefits of the resulting organic carbon to farmers, using a simulation methodology. Carbon
patterns were simulated using a soil turn-over model – RothC – for a representative site in
the black soil zone of Saskatchewan. The study then simulated the economic values of the
resulting carbon stocks with crop response functions that directly link the nutrients contained
in SOC to crop yield. The economic simulation employed three common annual crops,
canola, spring wheat, and oats with the fundamental assumption that the value of SOC is
inherent in its contribution to crop yield through nutrient mineralization. The carbon
simulation utilizes two annual crop rotations to assess soil management impacts on soil
organic carbon dynamics over a 20-year duration: a three-year canola-wheat-barley rotation
and a four-year canola-spring wheat-canola-barley rotation. The carbon simulation shows
marginal but incremental and sustained carbon additions to the soil that average nearly 1.60
t C ha-1 yr-1 over the entire period. The average annual additions to SOC were proportional
(or approximate) to the amounts of the inputs’ additions of organic carbon from harvested
remains of crops such as residue and stubble. Concurrently, an increase in SOC is
accompanied by a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, suggesting multiple functional
roles of soil carbon sequestration, though the study did not include carbon tax in the
analsysis. By creating three alternative scenarios, the economic simulations show that the
SOC’s monetary values range between $ CAD 0.03 t-1 C ha-1 and $ CAD 57.72 t-1 C ha-1
depending on the crop type and assumptions employed. These boundaries are estimated at
1% and 10% efficiencies of SOC impacts on crop yield and subsequently on farm revenue.
With the maximum annual benefits of SOC (i.e. $ CAD 57.72 t-1 C ha-1), an annual
sequestration value of $ CAD 2.00 t-1 C ha-1 yr-1 was obtained. The sequestration value is
perhaps less than the annual marginal cost of sequestering carbon found to be $ CAD 119.00
-1
ha .Therelativelyhighermarginalcostcomparedtotheannualbenefitssuggestsproviding
technical support will boost sequestration activities though this study did not explore if farmers will or should receive them in the future.
Description
Keywords
Soil organic carbon, private benefits, RothC, crop response functions, carbon sequestration, marginal cost, simulation
Citation
Degree
Master of Science (M.Sc.)
Department
Agricultural and Resource Economics
Program
Agricultural Economics