STOCK CARBON SOIL AND FLOW OF GREENHOUSE GASES IN THE PROCESS OF AGRICULTURAL CROP COFFEE

Abstract

In the last century, activities related to industrial production and soil agricultural use have caused an expressive increase in the concentration of the greenhouse effect gases, especially carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4), which are responsible, at least in part, for the global warming and their negative impacts in agriculture and society in general. Considering that Brazil is an agriculture based country, the greatest coffee producer, with a harvest estimated in 4,73 milion bags of green coffee and the fact that coffee crop demands nitrogen to increase the productivity, this research is based on the hypothesis that the nitrogen fertilization increases the N2O emission to the atmosphere and possibly CO2 and CH4 which are generated by liming and solid and liquid wastes from the coffee processing, respectively. The objective of this research is to quantify the total emission of greenhouse effect gases in the process of agricultural cultivation of coffee, referring to the factors already mentioned. Other sources, such as burning fossil fuels and electricity should also be considered. Changes in soil carbon stock will be determined and subtracted from total emission, to allow the net emission calculation. Three field experiments will be carried out; the first one involves the determination of N2O emission rate with five treatments in randomized block design. The second experiment consists of CO2 emission from lime application in soil. In the third experiment, CO2 and CH4 emissions from compost pile and wastewater lagoon after application in soil will be compared to control with "clean" water. Statistical analyses will be performed using analysis of variance (ANOVA), means test (Tukey) and correlation (Pearson's correlation). From this results will be possible to calculate the C footprint from each kg of coffee produced in order to add value to the final product (coffee export) for environmental awareness in production.