At a seminar organised by the Indian Institute of Plantation Management Bengaluru in collaboration with the United Planters Association of South India and The Indian Tea Association, stakeholders of the plantation sector deliberated on the opportunities for tapping the carbon market potential for the sector.
M P Cherian, President, UPASI, stressed upon the need for a policy push that will allow agri-plantations to trade in sequestered carbon.
While rubber plantations have been found to have highest carbon sequestration per hectare, other plantation crops such as such as tea, coffee, cardamom and cocoa also hold the carbon sequestration potential.
Arijit Raha, Secretary General, ITA, stressed on the need for the plantation sector to align with the declaration made by the government to become net zero by 2070.
Citing an ITA study, carried out in 2013, Raha said the tea sector by nature of its operations, is carbon positive.
Further, commenting on the issue of carbon trading, Raha said that there was a need to institutionalise a vehicle that could connect the tea sector to the carbon market.
Kumar further said that the rate at which the Indian economy is growing, it is highly important to bring down the emissions as we have taken a target of reducing the emissions by 45 per cent by 2030.
N Anil Kumar, Senior Director, MSSRF spoke on the opportunities and the importance of carbon sequestration in the coffee sector.