ACE Submits Comments to USDA on Climate-Smart Farming Practices

( American Coalition for Ethanol /Ethanol Producer Magazine) The American Coalition for Ethanol submitted feedback to the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service request for public input on implementation of funding in the Inflation Reduction Act for key NRCS conservation programs to spur farmer adoption of climate-smart practices. ACE CEO Brian Jennings and Jonathon Lehman, founder of the consulting group Cultivating Conservation, provided comments to NRCS, detailing key learnings from ACE’s South Dakota-based Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) project currently underway and how it’s poised to broaden its reach geographically to help achieve Congressional directives for the IRA funding.

ACE and its project partners are currently implementing the Expanding Soil Health Through Carbon Markets Alternative Funding Arrangement (AFA) RCPP in South Dakota to spur farmer adoption of climate-smart practices, to quantify the resulting carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits, and to help farmers monetize these gains in existing carbon markets to ensure the durability of climate-smart practice application.

“Using NRCS resources to unlock access to lucrative carbon markets is the ultimate way to maximize improvement in nitrogen losses, and the reduction, capture, avoidance, or sequestration of carbon dioxide, methane, or nitrous oxide emissions, associated with agricultural production,” the comments state.

Utilizing experience from working with NRCS for over the past year on the RCPP project, ACE’s comments describe how NRCS can effectively implement this new IRA funding to ensure robust farmer adoption of climate-smart practices, while also positioning farmers to maximize returns in climate markets for the carbon sequestration and GHG benefits these practices provide. Below are some key points:

•Since there is a significant need for localized quantification and verification of carbon sequestration and carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emission reductions resulting from climate-smart practices, the $300 million in Conservation Technical Assistance can be a critical piece for the rigorous data collection, analysis and modeling that is necessary, and the effort must be coordinated across a multi-state geographic region that captures diversity of soil type, precipitation and temperature variables.

•NRCS should ensure that any participation by the private sector and private philanthropy result in non-proprietary, generally available quantification and verification protocols to maximize benefits to farmers.

•The goal of the IRA funding should be to incentivize sufficient farmer participation at scale within the necessary geographical diverse footprint to secure the data necessary to improve the robustness of the existing agroecosystem models so that on-farm practices can qualify for lucrative low carbon fuel markets. This will create the critical market-based economic incentive for farmers to universally adopt climate smart practices in their operations that will lead to significant and sustainable climate benefits.

Building on the existing RCPP, ACE and Cultivating have recruited a trans-disciplinary team to expand upon the successful RCPP project using IRA resources. This expanded project would greatly speed NRCS’ implementation of IRA directives and has bipartisan Congressional support.

Excerpt from Solutions from the Land: Indiana ranks among the top 5 in the nation for duck (1st), egg (2nd), soybean (3rd), turkey (4th), corn (5th) and hog (5th) production and in the top 10 for blueberries, peppermint, processing tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, snap beans and cucumbers.

While Indiana agriculture is productive and diverse—important assets for resilience, climate change is creating new challenges to which farmers need to adapt:

“We are going to need to make some adjustments in the way we farm to accommodate this changing climate,” Villwock says.

The good news is, however, there are pragmatic steps that can be taken to sustainably intensify production, improve resilience and concurrently deliver mitigation services. The approach must be rooted in science and focused on improving both economic and environmental sustainability.

“For agriculture to remain sustainable, it also has to be profitable,” Villwock says. “There’s no one right solution to any of this, but we need to keep our minds open to new practices that would increase soil health, water quality and air quality.”

Indiana, with its storied academic institutions, centers of innovation and technology, conservation partnerships and value chain collaboratives is well positioned to meet the challenge. Solutions from the Land applauds Indiana Smart Agriculture’s collaborative efforts to move a farmer-centered climate-smart conversation forward in the state with the vision to keep Indiana agriculture vibrant, innovative and productive for generations to come.

The next step for INSA will be constructing and building support for a science-based, climate-smart action plan that can guide future policies, programs, partnerships, and investments needed for Indiana agriculture to adapt and thrive. To do so, it has invited all stakeholders, and especially young, next-generation farmers and ranchers, from across Indiana’s agriculture and forestry value chains to join the conversation. If you are interested in participating, contact Ernie Shea, Solutions from the Land president, at eshea@solutionsfromtheland.org. READ MORE