New UF Test Could Help Third World Farmers Improve Soil, Fight Global Warming

New UF Test Could Help Third World Farmers Improve Soil, Fight Global Warming: "The process provides a cost-effective way to measure carbon in large plots of land, said James W. Jones, a distinguished professor of agricultural and biological engineering with UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

Crop soils in poor countries are often carbon-depleted due to farmers' reliance on primitive agricultural practices that remove carbon -- a crucial nutrient that helps soil resist erosion and promotes plant growth -- but never replace it, Jones said.

Carbon left in soil could one day be used as part of an emissions trading program under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. But first, researchers will need to develop pilot projects to demonstrate that the amount of carbon stored in the soil can be measured accurately through time, said Sandra Brown, a senior scientist at Winrock International, a nonprofit agricultural research organization in Little Rock, Ark.

And, she said, the global warming treaty would need to be amended as well to allow richer countries to exceed their greenhouse emissions limits in exchange for investing in agriculture projects."