Role of Smallholder Tea Growers in Carbon Sink Management

One-fourth of the total tea production in India comes from smallholder tea estates, thus signifying the importance of this land use in biomass carbon management. As small-scale tea plantation management provides livelihood security to the growers, they prefer to manage such plantation over a long period of time and therefore maintaining a permanent sink of carbon. In the present study from Barak Valley part of North East India, such smallholder plantations were assessed for carbon stock in tea bushes, shade trees and soil compartment. Allometric equation for tea plants developed from this region was used for estimation of biomass carbon stock in tea bushes, while species-specific volume equations were used for shade trees. Carbon stock of biomass, litter layer and soil compartment in smallholder tea plantations were estimated as 30.50 Mg, 5.54 Mg and 122.17 ± 9.82 Mg C ha^–1 up to 1 m depth respectively. Shade tree compartment contributed a dominant proportion (56.37%) of biomass and carbon stock compared to tea bushes (25.46%) and litter layer (18.17%). Collectively soil compartment holds maximum proportion (80%) of carbon stock followed by shade tree (11%), tea bush (5%) and litter (4%) compartments in the system. Comparatively carbon stock in smallholder tea estate is lower than many of the tropical and subtropical forestry and agroforestry systems. Nonetheless, the former sustains the livelihood of million of farmers across the tropical world and simultaneously maintains a permanent sink of carbon. Further studies are required to better understand the tea agroforestry arrangement to promote sink capability of smallholder tea estates.