Presently, about 20% of oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis Jacq) fields in Indonesia are on peat soil, in addition to that other area of peat soil has been conventionally used for rice field and vegetables. To elucidate the global warming potentials of peat soils cultivated to oil palm, vegetable or rice field, field experiment has been carried out in South Kalimantan. Air samples were taken from rice field, oil palm and vegetable fields in weekly basis for six month period and analyzed for concentrations of N 2O, CH 4 and CO 2. The global warming potentials (GWP) of the three gases were calculated by multiplying the emission of each gas with their respective mole warming potential. This step was followed by the addition of the three gases' GWP to have the total GWP. The results showed that the emissions of greenhouse gases from peat soils changed seasonally and varied with the crops cultivated. Oil palm has resulted the highest GWP, mostly contributed by N 2O. There was no statistical different in total GWP of paddy and vegetable fields. The annual N 2O emission from oil palm field was 4,582 g N ha -1 yr -1. Water, nutrients and organic matter managements are among the potential techniques to minimize gas emissions from oil palm field which need field trials.
