Advanced BioFuels USA

by Rod Nickel and Karl Plume (Reuters)  The biggest global agriculture companies are competing on a new front: enticing farmers to join programs that keep atmosphere-warming carbon dioxide in the soil.

Fertilizer producers Nutrien Ltd (NTR.TO) and Yara (YAR.OL), agribusiness giant Cargill Inc (CARG.UL), and seed and chemical dealers Corteva Inc (CTVA.N) and Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE) are paying growers for every acre of land dedicated to trapping carbon underground, known as sequestering it. The companies’ ambitions stretch from the United States to Canada, Brazil, Europe and India, executives told Reuters.

Farmers capture carbon by planting off-season crops, tilling the ground less and using fertilizer more efficiently. They log their practices on digital platforms to generate a carbon credit. Agricultural companies use the credits to offset the climate impact of other parts of their businesses or sell them to companies looking to reduce their own carbon footprints.

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Some farmers view the programs run by the giant agricultural corporations with suspicion – as a method to harvest their data that will be used to sell them more products, according to interviews with more than a dozen farmers, analysts and farm groups. Other critics question whether it is even possible for farmers to guarantee they are keeping carbon underground because simply turning the soil can undo efforts to store it.

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The farming techniques required by such programs offer the additional promise of realizing higher yields from healthier soils that are less reliant on chemicals.

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Bayer is an early leader with around 1.5 million acres enrolled in sustainable agriculture programs globally, mostly in the United States.

Bayer’s program is unique in that it compensates growers for planting cover crops and reducing tillage, rather than paying them for how many tonnes of verified carbon they sequester.

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Nutrien’s program has secured 200,000 acres in the United States and Canada this year. Nutrien expects to make a profit from the start, because enrolment involves selling farmers high-margin products like crop treatments composed of insect-killing bacteria or controlled-release fertilizer, said Mark Thompson, the company’s Chief Strategy and Sustainability officer.

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Cargill aims to reduce its supply-chain emissions 30% by 2030 in part by enrolling 10 million acres in small-scale regenerative agriculture programs.

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Brazil and India, where farmers harvest multiple crops each year, could generate larger volumes of sequestered carbon than the United States under Yara’s program in as little as three years, said Alex Bell, chief executive of the program, called Agoro Carbon Alliance.   READ MORE

Soils : The Missing Link In Carbon And Climate Change Conversations (AgWeb)

Keeping Cattle on the Move and Carbon in the Soil (New York Times)

How experts say farmers can reduce greenhouse gases from agriculture (ABC News; includes VIDEO)

New plan to pay farmers who protect winter soil (BBC)

Making cover crops pay off: what it takes to cover the cost (Agri-Pulse)

Direct checks could ignite cover crop surge; crop insurance may play role, too (Agri-Pulse)