Carbon farming, carbon storage, carbon payments. It all seems so simple at first glance. How can farmers get paid for carbon is a question on many people’s minds, but the more that we learn and the more that is published on carbon, the more complicated it seems.
Two major international conferences have covered the topic recently – The International Fertilizer Society’s conference and the Oxford Farming Conference.
At the latter, a report was released from the Green Alliance and the World Wildlife Fund. What is clear from these presentations and reports is that there is huge potential to store carbon in agriculture, whether that is in our soils, our hedgerows or trees.
Knowing our carbon footprint is essential and will help us to reduce that footprint with continued monitoring
What is less clear is how this carbon is going to be measured and if it can be measured accurately where the cost of measurement will not outweigh the benefit.
Knowing our carbon footprint is essential and will help us to reduce that footprint with continued monitoring. This footprint can be calculated using carbon models.
Testing for soil carbon or soil organic matter in your regular soil samples can help to keep an eye on the health of your soil.
However, to get an accurate soil carbon measurement more detailed sampling is needed.
Maintaining carbon levels is a challenge, building those levels is a bigger one and measuring them may be the biggest challenge.
Going on information we’ve gathered so far, it looks like five years after the first carbon measurement is taken another will be needed to see how much carbon has been built in the soil
At present, labs all over the country are testing for carbon. Samples cost approximately €35. According to the UN’s guidelines, samples need to be taken to 30cm, so these samples are more laborious than the standard soil sample, which should be taken to at least 10cm.
Going on information we’ve gathered so far, it looks like five years after the first carbon measurement is taken another will be needed to see how much carbon has been built in the soil in the meantime. This means more samples are required. It is only the carbon that has been stored in the meantime which can be counted towards a carbon credit and therefore payment.
There is also a risk that the carbon level goes down in the meantime. Often, practices that help farms to be more efficient and sustainable such as reseeding can result in carbon being released from the soil.
It is less clear how many samples are needed. For example, it is unlikely that a sample every 4ha would cut the mustard.
We all know the variability in soils and fields when taking soil samples, so if that carbon is going to be traded on a market, the measurement needs to be accurate, as a smaller sample takes out some of the variability.
At the International Fertilizer Society’s conference, different techniques for measuring and estimating carbon were presented by Pete Smith of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, but there did not seem to be 100% confidence in any of these systems. So, while we know certain practices can increase carbon storage, measurement is more difficult.
Method of measurement
A reliable and standard method of measurement is essential in a market. If you went to the shop and paid for a 10kg bag of potatoes, you don’t want to come home to find there’s only 7kg in the bag. If a company is emitting 1t of carbon, then they need to pay for 1t of carbon which has been stored.
The World Wildlife Fund’s report leaves no doubt about the many various methods which can increase carbon in agriculture, such as including grass leys in crop rotations, planting hedgerows or planting cover crops.
Most importantly, the report outlines the need to obtain an accurate carbon balance, to develop monitoring, reporting and verification protocols and to develop a legal structure to ensure management.
The report highlights the need for credible markets and states that to be considered high quality, carbon credits or certificates need:
To be additional to what would have happened.Permanent storage, so that the stored carbon is not released into the atmosphere in future.All greenhouse gas impacts of the activity need to be considered, including whether the activity causes more emissions elsewhere, for example by displacing food production (carbon leakage).Accurate measurement, reporting and verification of the carbon.Solutions
The carbon farming initiatives being developed at national and EU level may be a way forward and may be the necessary way if agricultural activities are already included in the national inventories and cannot be counted twice.
Supporting farmers to chop straw, grow cover crops, clover and multispecies swards may be solutions to increase carbon storage. Increased research is needed to quantify the potential carbon storage from these methods.
The inclusion of grass leys in crop rotation is one notable omission from the Department of Agriculture’s proposed eco-scheme in the new CAP encouraging farmers to place break crops on the rotation.
Carbon farming, carbon storage, carbon payments. It all seems so simple at first glance. How can farmers get paid for carbon is a question on many people’s minds, but the more that we learn and the more that is published on carbon, the more complicated it seems.
Two major international conferences have covered the topic recently – The International Fertilizer Society’s conference and the Oxford Farming Conference.
At the latter, a report was released from the Green Alliance and the World Wildlife Fund. What is clear from these presentations and reports is that there is huge potential to store carbon in agriculture, whether that is in our soils, our hedgerows or trees.
Knowing our carbon footprint is essential and will help us to reduce that footprint with continued monitoring
What is less clear is how this carbon is going to be measured and if it can be measured accurately where the cost of measurement will not outweigh the benefit.
Knowing our carbon footprint is essential and will help us to reduce that footprint with continued monitoring. This footprint can be calculated using carbon models.
Testing for soil carbon or soil organic matter in your regular soil samples can help to keep an eye on the health of your soil.
However, to get an accurate soil carbon measurement more detailed sampling is needed.
Maintaining carbon levels is a challenge, building those levels is a bigger one and measuring them may be the biggest challenge.
Going on information we’ve gathered so far, it looks like five years after the first carbon measurement is taken another will be needed to see how much carbon has been built in the soil
At present, labs all over the country are testing for carbon. Samples cost approximately €35. According to the UN’s guidelines, samples need to be taken to 30cm, so these samples are more laborious than the standard soil sample, which should be taken to at least 10cm.
Going on information we’ve gathered so far, it looks like five years after the first carbon measurement is taken another will be needed to see how much carbon has been built in the soil in the meantime. This means more samples are required. It is only the carbon that has been stored in the meantime which can be counted towards a carbon credit and therefore payment.
There is also a risk that the carbon level goes down in the meantime. Often, practices that help farms to be more efficient and sustainable such as reseeding can result in carbon being released from the soil.
It is less clear how many samples are needed. For example, it is unlikely that a sample every 4ha would cut the mustard.
We all know the variability in soils and fields when taking soil samples, so if that carbon is going to be traded on a market, the measurement needs to be accurate, as a smaller sample takes out some of the variability.
At the International Fertilizer Society’s conference, different techniques for measuring and estimating carbon were presented by Pete Smith of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, but there did not seem to be 100% confidence in any of these systems. So, while we know certain practices can increase carbon storage, measurement is more difficult.
Method of measurement
A reliable and standard method of measurement is essential in a market. If you went to the shop and paid for a 10kg bag of potatoes, you don’t want to come home to find there’s only 7kg in the bag. If a company is emitting 1t of carbon, then they need to pay for 1t of carbon which has been stored.
The World Wildlife Fund’s report leaves no doubt about the many various methods which can increase carbon in agriculture, such as including grass leys in crop rotations, planting hedgerows or planting cover crops.
Most importantly, the report outlines the need to obtain an accurate carbon balance, to develop monitoring, reporting and verification protocols and to develop a legal structure to ensure management.
The report highlights the need for credible markets and states that to be considered high quality, carbon credits or certificates need:
To be additional to what would have happened.Permanent storage, so that the stored carbon is not released into the atmosphere in future.All greenhouse gas impacts of the activity need to be considered, including whether the activity causes more emissions elsewhere, for example by displacing food production (carbon leakage).Accurate measurement, reporting and verification of the carbon.Solutions
The carbon farming initiatives being developed at national and EU level may be a way forward and may be the necessary way if agricultural activities are already included in the national inventories and cannot be counted twice.
Supporting farmers to chop straw, grow cover crops, clover and multispecies swards may be solutions to increase carbon storage. Increased research is needed to quantify the potential carbon storage from these methods.
The inclusion of grass leys in crop rotation is one notable omission from the Department of Agriculture’s proposed eco-scheme in the new CAP encouraging farmers to place break crops on the rotation.
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