Carbon Stock and Footprint of Cacao Agroforest in Polewali Mandar, West Sulawesi.

Abstract

Cacao is one of the commodities that play an important role in supporting economic and social development both in tropical and subtropical countries. However, it also acts as one of the significant contributor of carbon emissions. The facts that the cocoa industry is a greenhouse gas contributor has led to various efforts towards environment friendliness of the cacao farm management system. In this study, we conducted field observation with objectives to: 1) measure the rate of carbon stock and carbon footprint in two cacao cultivation systems, and an agroforest and monoculture system, 2) comprehend the contribution of biophysical aspects to the rate of carbon stocks and carbon footprints, 3) determine both the implication of the two systems to the environmentally friendly management of the cacao farm. The method was a combination between the questionnaire and the direct observation. Ten cacao agroforests and ten cacao monoculture cultivation farms were randomly selected in four Polewali Mandar villages. On the selected farm, a questionnaire-based interview was conducted to collect all information regarding the farm, its history, management practice including on-farm supply chain (fertilizer, pesticide, and fuel use). Field observation was conducted to find more information related to that farm. A field inventory was implemented on each farm using the sampling plot with the core plot of 20 x 20 m to collect the biomass data for carbon stock analysis. Some of the biophysical aspects such as light intensity, shade, and soil characteristic also were collected in this study. The result showed that cacao agroforests accumulated better total carbon stock than that of cacao monoculture system, namely 134.43±14.27 Mg C ha-1 and 104.7± 9.29 Mg C ha-1, respectively. On the other hand, cacao monoculture system enhanced significantly total carbon footprint higher than cacao agroforest, namely 1914.4±212.0 kg CO2e ha-1 and 932.1±251.6 kg CO2e ha-1, respectively. Shade trees, trees density, and soil organic were biophysical aspects showing a significant positive correlation between the level of carbon stock, while shade trees had a significantly negative correlation with the carbon footprint level. Cacao agroforests are considered as a climate-friendly management system due relatively to the ability for storing a high level of carbon stock and securing low carbon footprint.