Vermicompost Helps Jute Fields Store Carbon While Boosting Fiber Yields

A two-year field experiment on a farmer’s plot in the Kushtia region has measured, gas by gas, how different ways of feeding the crop change its greenhouse gas emissions, its biomass, and its overall carbon balance. The results, published in the journal Discover Soil, show that pairing the recommended synthetic fertilizers with vermicompost produced the tallest, heaviest jute plants, the highest fiber yields, and the largest net gain of carbon in the soil.

The research team, led by Md Mozammel Haque and Jatish Chandra Biswas, set up a randomized complete block design with three treatments and four replications during the 2022 and 2023 growing seasons. The treatments were the recommended synthetic fertilizer dose of 60 kg nitrogen, 30 kg phosphorus and 30 kg potassium per hectare; the same base fertilizers integrated with 2 tonnes of vermicompost per hectare under an integrated plant nutrition system, or IPNS; and the same integration using 2 tonnes of cow dung per hectare. Jute of the tossa pat-8 variety was sown in the final week of March and harvested in the final week of July in both years, on the same plots each season.

To capture the gases escaping from the soil, the researchers used the static closed-chamber technique. Acrylic chambers 20 centimeters in diameter and height were placed in plant-free gaps between jute plants three days after sowing and kept open except during sampling. Gas samples were drawn with 50-milliliter gas-tight syringes at zero and 30 minutes after sealing, three times a day at 8:00, 12:00 and 16:00 to smooth out diurnal variation, at seven-day intervals from five days after seedling emergence until harvest. Concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide were then measured by gas chromatography using thermal conductivity, flame ionization and electron capture detectors respectively, and fluxes were converted to carbon dioxide equivalents using warming-potency factors of 28 for methane and 265 for nitrous oxide.

The agronomic outcome was clear. Vermicompost-IPNS consistently produced the highest root, leaf, stick, fiber and total biomass of all treatments, peaking in 2023 at 13,345 kilograms of total biomass and 3,885 kilograms of fiber per hectare. Cow dung-IPNS followed closely, while the sole synthetic fertilizer treatment gave the lowest yields in both years. Stick biomass made up roughly 50 to 52 percent of the total across all treatments, and fiber yield with vermicompost-IPNS was 13.5 percent higher than with synthetic fertilizers alone in 2023. Productivity also rose from 2022 to 2023 in every treatment, with vermicompost-IPNS total biomass climbing from 12,970 to 13,345 kilograms per hectare.

The carbon accounting told a subtler story. Organic amendments added more carbon to the system, both through the crop itself and through the amendments, which contributed 50 to 60 kilograms of carbon per hectare compared with 20 kilograms from urea alone. Vermicompost-IPNS achieved the highest total carbon input in 2023, 4,882 kilograms per hectare per season, equivalent to 17,901 kilograms of carbon dioxide. Yet the organic plots also emitted more: cow dung-IPNS released 367 to 380 kilograms of carbon as carbon dioxide per hectare, roughly double the 185 to 202 kilograms from the synthetic fertilizer plots, and methane emissions, though negligible overall, were significantly higher where organic material had been applied. About 90 percent of the carbon leaving the system was locked in the harvested stick and fiber.

Indirect emissions, estimated with the Cool Farm Tool, were remarkably similar across treatments, at 774.75 to 780.35 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per hectare, because field operations were identical. What dominated that footprint was surprising: fiber processing alone accounted for about 320 kilograms, roughly 41 percent, matching the share of fertilizer production, while irrigation water contributed about 81 kilograms. Seed sowing added a mere 0.15 kilograms. The authors argue that post-harvest activities such as retting deserve as much attention as field inputs if the jute industry wants to shrink its life-cycle carbon intensity.

When the field-scale measurements were combined with life-cycle assessment, which folds in indirect emissions from inputs and operations, net carbon dioxide absorption came to 0.94 to 1.09 kilograms per kilogram of fiber produced; without life-cycle assessment, the gross figure was 4.56 to 4.73 kilograms per kilogram of fiber. Oxygen release, estimated from the stoichiometry of photosynthesis rather than measured directly, was 0.68 to 0.79 kilograms per kilogram of fiber under life-cycle accounting and 3.32 to 3.44 kilograms without it. Vermicompost-IPNS showed the maximum estimated net absorption of 4.60 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilogram of fiber, releasing an estimated 3.34 kilograms of oxygen per kilogram. Seasonally, the treatment absorbed an estimated 16.01 to 17.64 tonnes of carbon dioxide and released 11.64 to 12.56 tonnes of oxygen per hectare.

The soil itself registered the difference. After two years, leaf and root biomass returned to the field had significantly improved organic carbon, available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, total carbon stock, the net carbon budget, mean weight diameter of aggregates and bulk density relative to the initial baseline of a silty clay loam with 11.5 grams of organic carbon per kilogram. All three treatments showed positive net ecosystem carbon sequestration, meaning the system acted as a carbon sink, but vermicompost-IPNS led with an annual buildup of 1,094 kilograms of carbon per hectare, while the synthetic fertilizer treatment still added more than 656 kilograms above the baseline. Vermicompost-IPNS added 411 to 438 kilograms more carbon per hectare per season than the other treatments, and the authors attribute its superior carbon stabilization to the more humified, microbe-resistant state of carbon in vermicompost compared with raw manures.

The researchers are careful about the limits of their work. Post-harvest decomposition of crop residues was not considered in the net ecosystem carbon balance, oxygen release was calculated from photosynthetic stoichiometry because direct measurement facilities were unavailable, and the net carbon dioxide absorption figures did not vary significantly between treatments or years. They also note that a long-term study is needed to establish the true sequestration potential of jute-based cropping systems, since soil carbon gains of 3 to 5 percent over the initial status after two crops may not continue indefinitely.

Even with those caveats, the message is striking for a crop that covers 723,639 hectares of Bangladesh and yielded 2,086,101 tonnes in 2024. Jute grows aerobically, unlike paddy rice, which limits methane production, and its fallen leaves and extensive roots continually enrich the topsoil. If integrated nutrient management with vermicompost can raise fiber yields by more than 13 percent while keeping the whole system on the right side of the carbon ledger, the humble Golden Fiber may earn its reputation not just as a biodegradable alternative to synthetic textiles, but as a crop that leaves the atmosphere, and the soil, measurably better off than it found them.

Subject of Research: Greenhouse gas emissions, biomass production and net carbon sequestration in jute cultivation under integrated nutrient management in Bangladesh

Article Title: Integrated nutrient management influences greenhouse gas emissions, biomass production and carbon balance in jute cultivation

Article References: Haque, M. M., & Biswas, J. C. (2026). Integrated nutrient management influences greenhouse gas emissions, biomass production and carbon balance in jute cultivation. Discover Soil, 3(1), Article 203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44378-026-00364-0

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44378-026-00364-0

Keywords: jute, vermicompost, integrated nutrient management, greenhouse gas emissions, carbon sequestration, Bangladesh, fiber yield, life-cycle assessment, soil organic carbon, oxygen release, Cool Farm Tool, net ecosystem carbon balance