Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
Open Access

Abstract

Recent international effort regarding global warming has focused on Kyoto protocol. At the Earth summit in 1992, the World agreed to prevent ?dangerous? climate change. The first step was the 1997 Kyoto protocol, which finally came into force in 2005. It will bring modest emission reduction from industrialized countries. But many observers say deeper cuts are needed from developing nations that have large growing populations and depend on climate deriving agriculture. In that context, the use of biological to absorb or reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) (often referred to as carbon ?sink?) has to be employed. The Kyoto Protocol required a reduction of about 0.2billion ton of carbon/year during the 5years commitment period or a total of 1 billion tons of Carbon. The bottom line is that we will need to cut CO 2 emission by 70% to 80% simply to stabilize atmospheric CO 2 concentrations-and thus temperatures. The quicker we do that, the less unbearably hot our future world will be. Agriculture is an accumulator of carbon dioxide, offsetting losses when organic matter is accumulated in the soil or when above - ground woody biomass acts either as permanent sink or as energy sources that substitute for fossil fuels. Agriculture activities can help to reduce and avoid the atmospheric build up of CO 2 , CH 4 and N 2 O in a number of ways. It is widely accepted that Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can be remove by plant via photosynthesis which increases the amount of Carbon stored in vegetation (living above and below ground biomass). As the live biomass dies the carbon is then stored as dead organic matter (such as litter and dead wood) until it decomposes and some transferred to mineral soil. If the trees are harvested, some of the carbon is stored in durable wood products The paper looks at the influence/role of agricultural activities in carbon mitigation as carbon sinks to abate climate change and suggest some ways forward especially as its affects developing nations like Nigeria

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