Enhancing our understanding of carbon (C) stock in diverse horticulture and fruit-based agroforestry systems has potential to provide farmers with supplementary advantages in terms of poverty alleviation and livelihood development which can significantly benefit C market initiatives like UN-REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation). Therefore, the current study aimed to assess the biomass accumulation, C storage and economic efficacy of seven agro-ecosystems, namely guava-based agri-horticulture system (AHS), mango-AHS, guava- pure orchard (PO), mango-PO, Indian gooseberry -PO, teak boundary plantation (TBP) and annual cropping system (ACS) under two different landscape positions viz., upland and lowland in the semi-arid region of Vindhyan ranges. The result indicated that mango-AHS accumulated significantly (p < 0.05) higher biomass (26.01 t ha⁻¹) and vegetation C density (13.01 t C ha⁻¹) whereas, soil (35.23 t C ha⁻¹), litter (0.64 t C ha⁻¹), and total C density (46.63 t C ha⁻¹) was maximum under mango-PO closely followed by mango-AHS. The guava-PO system exhibited significantly (p < 0.05) higher C sequestration (2.11 t C ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹), and CO₂ abatement (7.76 t CO₂ ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹) rate compared to other systems with C credit generation of 129.76 US$ ha⁻¹ year⁻¹. However, mango-AHS was the most lucrative system providing net returns of 4835.48 US$ ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ and 5.87 benefit–cost ratio. The C credits help in getting farmers an additional income; however, the economic impact of C credit was low (1.16–6.80%) when weighed against the overall economic efficacy of the different systems. Overall, the study concluded that farmers in the region should adopt fruit-based systems, especially agroforestry systems to establish mutually beneficial relationships between mitigation of climate change and livelihood stability. Graphical Abstract

Field experiments were conducted in 2001 and 2002 to study the effect of date of planting, herbicide, and straw mulch on menthol mint yield and oil quality in northwest India. Menthol mint was planted at three dates (December 10, December 30, and January 20). Diuron was applied prior to emergence at rates of 0.0, 0.4, and 0.6 kg ai/ha, with and without rice straw mulch (6 t/ha). Menthol mint planted on December 30 and January 20 produced more plantlets and dry matter than the December 10 planting. Menthol mint planted on December 10 had higher weed density and weed biomass, and lower menthol mint herbage and oil yield than the later planting dates. Straw mulch application reduced weed density and weed biomass, and increased plantlet population, menthol mint dry matter accumulation, fresh herbage, and menthol mint oil yield. Preemergence (PRE) applications of diuron at 0.4 and 0.6 kg ai/ha increased menthol mint population and crop dry matter accumulation, and decreased weed density and weed biomass compared to the weedy check. Diuron at 0.6 kg/ha increased fresh herbage and menthol mint oil yield over the untreated weedy check, but there were no other differences between the two rates of diuron. Physicochemical properties of menthol mint oil were not affected by any of the three tested factors.