JIRCAS in association with Thailand Department of Agriculture (DOA) and Land Development Department (LDD) will be hosting an International Workshop.

December 6, 2012 (9am – 17pm)
(Field visit to Lopburi, Thailand on December 7)

Green House Gas (GHG) emission from agriculture including that from conversion of forest into farm land forms approximately 30 per cent of world GHG emission. Especially in developing countries, the share is higher and agricultural emission reduction is urgent. On the other hand farm lands stock an enormous amount of carbon as soil organic matters; therefore farm lands as well as forest can work as carbon sinks if they are managed by appropriate manners so that increase the soil carbon.

The change of soil carbon is determined by the balance of carbon (e.g. manure) application and decomposition of organic matter in soil. It is highly affected by the farm land management like manure application, crop residue treatment and tillage. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for National GHG Inventories refer Long-Term Soil Experiments (LTSEs) which observe the effects of organic matter application and conservation tillage on soil in long term basis and estimate the coefficients relating to carbon absorption into farm land. However, most of the LTSEs are implemented in North America and Europe which locate in a temperate zone and few LTSEs are found in tropical zone especially in Southeast Asia.

Like other sources of GHG emissions in agriculture, decomposition / accumulation of soil organic matter is highly affected by the environmental factors such as soil and climate. Therefore it is crucial to develop carbon sequestration technologies which are the most appropriate to the specific farm areas based on soil, climate and cropping patterns in the respective regions in order to effectively use farm land as a carbon sink.

Besides the different climate conditions like high temperature and intensive rain fall, farm households in Southeast Asia have unique features such as small scale or poor capital. It will be beneficial for researchers in this region to know the latest studies of soil carbon sequestration in the world and to exchange their views so that they can solve the obstacles in their study and promote the technology transfer of their research outputs to farmers.

Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) in association with the Department of Agriculture (DOA), Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC) and Land Development Department (LDD), MOAC, Royal Thai Government will therefore organize an international workshop in Bangkok, Thailand, on 6 December 2012 with the participation of three Southeast Asia countries (Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam), which implements LTSEs under the research collaborations with JIRCAS and resource persons with good knowledge of soil carbon sequestration and LTSEs.

The workshop will focus on developing soil carbon sequestration technologies in farm land, especially the relevancy and applicability of the technologies in Southeast Asia. The resource persons will introduce the latest studies on soil carbon sequestration while the participants from the JIRCAS collaborative project are invited to present a paper highlighting research outputs from the on-going LTSEs and future directions of the research will be discussed with the special attentions to the inputs from the resource persons.

Keynote Speech:

• Soil carbon sequestration by cropland management and mitigation of climate change

Yasuhito Shirato (National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, Japan)

• The latest study about soil carbon sequestration and LTSEs in Rothamsted

Andrew Macdonald (Rothamsted Research)

• The latest study about soil carbon sequestration and LTSEs in IRRI

Roland Joseph Buresh (IRRI)

Country study Presentation:

• LTSE in Indonesia under JIRCAS research collaboration

Suwandi (Indonesian Vegetable Research Institute) / Wiwik Hartatik (Indonesian Soil Research Institute)

• LTSE in Thailand under JIRCAS research collaboration

Suphakarn Luanmanee (DOA)

• LTSE in am under JIRCAS research collaboration

Luu Hong Man (Cuu Long Delta Rice Research Institute)

General Discussion: