TITLE:
Reappraisal of the Place of Cultivated Plants in the World Carbon Budget
AUTHORS:
Arnaud Muller-Feuga
KEYWORDS:
CO2, Agriculture, Forestry, Carbon Budget, Ocean, Annual Crops
JOURNAL NAME:
Voice of the Publisher,
Vol.11 No.3,
August
8,
2025
ABSTRACT: The impact of agriculture on the atmospheric CO2 remains underestimated due to the systematic exclusion of annual crops from carbon budgets. Considered too ephemeral, these crops are nevertheless responsible for the absorption and storage of approximately one-third of the carbon biofixed by photosynthesis, with half-lives that are not limited to a single season but extend on average over 8.9 years. The kinetics of variation in carbon capture and release by cultivated plants over the half-century were simulated to complete the probabilistic calculation of the carbon budget components. In 2023, all cultivated plants (crops, grasslands, and forest plantations) had a stored carbon half-life of 17.6 ± 0.7 years. They had removed 39.2 ± 0.5 billion tons of CO2 (GtCO2) per year from the atmosphere, more than global emissions from hydrocarbon combustion. This net anthropogenic sink of −31.0 ± 1.9 GtCO2 compensated 82% of those emissions. The time distribution allowed by this simulation suggests that cultivated plants have absorbed a cumulative net stock of 123.3 ± 3.9 billion tons of carbon (GtC) in 2023, or 14% of the atmosphere. Given the importance of this component of the carbon budget, both in duration and quantity, rural activities should be integrated into carbon budgets to define resulting climate strategies. This recognition would allow for the fair reward of the work of farmers and foresters as part of the ecological transition, particularly through remuneration mechanisms such as carbon credits.