International Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences Babu and Puttaiah Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 2277-1921 38 Online version available at: www.crdeep.com International Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences Vol. 2. No. 1. 2013. Pp. 38-47 © Copyright by CRDEEP. All Rights Reserved. Full Length Research Paper Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Agriculture Sector and Potential for Carbon Sequestration in T ungabhadra River Basin, I ndia M S U mesh Babu 1* and E T Puttaiah 2 1* Research Scholar, D epartment of Environmental Sciences, Kuvempu University,Shankaraghatta, Shimoga, Karnataka -577451, I ndia 2- Professor, D epartment of Environmental Sciences, Kuvempu University,Shankaraghatta, Shimoga,Karnataka - 577451, I ndia * Corresponding Author: M S U mesh Babu Abstract Since 1997 of Kyoto Protocol to 2012 Doha has clearly placed the “Common but Differentiated Responsibilities to reduce the concentrations of Greenhouse Gases (GH Gs) and climate change”. Central to this reduction in GHGs emission from all the member nations. Accordingly, guidelines were developed to measure GH Gs emissions at national levels by various agencies and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). On the other hand, in the event of negative implication due to climate change, it would be a particular river basin which will bore it, and not the entire nation. T herefore, mitigation statergies shoud focus on GHGs reduction at macro level and adoption measures at micro level. H owever, the major issues are uncertainty at micro level and also emissions of GH Gs which are contributing to global warming. T o study these issues in detail we have selected the T ungabhadra River basin in southern Indiaand estimated GHGs emissions from various segments of the agriculture sector, viz., a) the cultivation of rice, b) nitrogen fertilizer applications, c) residue burning, d) enteric fermentation and manure management. Results indicate fluctuations in the emissions of methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide. Key W ords: Climate Change, I PCC Guidelines, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Inventory Introduction Energy from the sun reaches the earth and portion of it’s reflected back (albido). Some of the atmospheric gases such as water vapor, carbon dioxide trap some of this outgoing energy, in other words, they act like glass panels of a greenhouse. Without this natural “greenhouse effect,” temperatures in the atmosphere would be much lower than the current temperatures. However, problems may arise when the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases increases and increasing trend in the concentrations of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) such as Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ), Methane (CH 4 ) and Nitrous Oxide (N 2 O) from various anthropogenic activities in the atmosphere is reported by several studies. As apprehended, since the beginning of the industrial revolution, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased nearly 30 percent, methane concentrations have more than doubled and nitrous oxide concentrations have risen by about 15 per cent. Subsequently, the global mean surface temperature has risen by 0.4–0.8°C (Subhod Sharma et al, 2006). As a result of this warming, 20th century's 10 warmest years have occurred in the last 15 years. Of these, 1998 was the warmest year in the record. Further, negative implications of this rise in temperature such as decrease in the snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere , sea level rise of 4-8 inches over the past century, increase in the frequency of extreme rainfall events etc were reported from across the the world. This paper attempts to estimate the Greenhouse Gases at micro level i.e. at a level of river basin. This study mainly focussed on the inventory of GHGs emissions from agriculture sector and also potential for carbon sequestration within the boundaries of the river basin in the state of Karnataka only. Study Area The Tungabhadra (TB) River basin is one of the major sub-basin of the Krishna river basin in peninsular India and stretches over an area of about 47,827 Sq. Km (1.45 percent of the Indian total geographical area) in the states of Karnataka (81.1 percent of the basin) and Andhra Pradesh (18.89 percent of the basin) (Figure 1). The total population of the TB basin is about 88.53 lakhs with population density of 302 persons per Sq. Km Average literacy rate is about 64 per cent in the basin. The total forest area of the basin is about