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THE PRIVATE ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF SOIL CARBON SEQUESTRATION

Date

2020-07-17

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

Part Of

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DOI

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