Cover crops do not increase soil organic carbon stocks as much as has been claimed: what is the way forward?

When compared to virgin land (forest and grassland), croplands store significantly lower amounts of organic carbon (OC), mainly as a result of soil tillage, and decreased plant inputs to the soil over the whole year. Doubts have been expressed over how much reduced and zero tillage agriculture can increase OC in soils when the whole soil profile is considered. Consequently, cover-crops that are grown in-between crops instead of leaving soils bare, appears as the “last man standing” in our quest to enhance cropland OC stocks. Despite the claim by numerous meta-analyses of a mean carbon sequestration rate by cover crops to be as high as 0.32±0.08 tonne C ha-1 yr-1, the present analysis showed that all of the 37 existing field studies worldwide only sampled to a depth of 30 cm or less and did not compare treatments on the basis of equivalent soil mass. Thirteen studies presented information on OC content only and not on OC stocks, had inappropriate controls (n=14), had durations of 3 years or lower (n=5), considered only one to two data points per treatment (n=4), or used cover crops as cash crops (i.e. grown longer that in-between two crops) instead of catch crops (n=2), which in all cases constitutes shortcomings. Of the remaining 6 trials, 4 showed non-significant trends, one study displayed a negative impact of cover crops, and one a positive impact, resulting in a mean OC storage of 0.03 tonne ha-1yr-1. Models and policies should urgently adapt to such new figure. Finally, more is to be done not only to improve the design of cover-crop studies for reaching sound conclusions but also to understand the underlying reasons of the low efficiency of cover crops for improved carbon sequestration into soils, with possible strategies being suggested.