Punjab Agricultural University holds training in GHG emission assessment

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 14

An eight-day hands-on-training workshop on “Assessment methods for soil carbon and greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture” began at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) today.

The workshop is being conducted under the World Bank sponsored National Agricultural Higher Education Project-Centre of Advanced Agricultural Science and Technology (NAHEP-CAAST) project on “Sustainable natural resource management” of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). Delegates comprising scientists, research fellows and students from across the country are participating in the training workshop.

GK Sangha, dean of postgraduate studies, inaugurated the workshop and highlighted the importance of soil carbon and various management strategies for mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.

OP Choudhary, head-cum-principal investigator of the CAAST project, gave a brief introduction of the training programme. He said soil carbon dynamics could be better understood by isolating labile and non-labile pools of soil organic matter (SOM) by physical, chemical and biological techniques and measurement C-fluxes in term of greenhouse gases (GHGs).

Expert DK Benbi, former ICAR national professor, presented an overview of quantification of carbon sequestration in soil under various management practices.

This eight-day training programme has been divided into several sessions and each session will be dealing with pertinent issues related to the assessment of soil carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. A website on NAHEP-CAAST (www.nahep-caast-pau.in) was also launched in this opening session.