How soil carbon projects are boosting farm profits and productivity

Through soil carbon projects, AgriProve is helping farmers like the Scanlan Family build soil carbon on their farms providing income and emissions reduction options by generating carbon credits.

Karen and Robert Scanlan run a 393-hectare cattle farm near Gladstone, Queensland that is home to the Fysh Carbon Project, one of Australia’s first registered soil carbon projects that was issued with Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) within two years.

Since the project began in 2020, it has become a powerful example of how lifting soil carbon levels delivers environmental, social and economic benefits for farmers and communities.

A land management strategy that includes multi-species pasture to increase plant diversity and increase soil organic carbon levels, and planned grazing management, saw the Scanlans improve the quality and resilience of their soil, increase agricultural output, and improve soil carbon levels.

The Scanlans have received 3,559 ACCUs and become a ground-breaking participant in the Queensland Government’s Land Restoration Fund.

“Most of Australia is either in drought or flooding – it’s tough being a farmer and anything that diversifies our farming income is important,” said Karen.

“We want to leave our land better than we found it for future generations, including our daughter.”

The Fysh Carbon Project was the first to deliver ACCUs under a digitally-enabled soil organic carbon model, developed by AgriProve, that identified the likely increase in carbon stocks. This was validated by physical soil sampling.

With more than 72% of all registered soil carbon projects, AgriProve is Australia’s leading soil carbon project developer and aims to mainstream a farmer-led, commercial model of soil carbon farming that regenerates agriculture and sequesters carbon at scale.

Matthew Warnken, AgriProve’s Managing Director, said the business has more than 700 soil carbon projects registered in the ACCU Scheme, totalling more than 175,000 hectares. He expects this to rise as farmers recognise the benefits of carbon-rich soil such as healthier soils, faster pasture growth and higher crop yields, greater water holding capacity, faster recovery after drought, and less need for synthetic fertiliser.

Importantly, soil carbon absorbs carbon from the atmosphere and reduces greenhouse gas – a process that can help farms generate carbon credits. Calculated and awarded by the government’s Clean Energy Regulator, carbon credits can be used to:

• Reduce the on-farm emissions footprint
• Generate additional income through sale, or
• Access price premiums e.g. carbon neutral livestock.

“We provide an end-to-end service to get producers and growers into projects that pull carbon out of the atmosphere where it is a problem, and put into soil where it becomes a valuable resource,” said Matthew.

“We deal with government forms and processes, get projects registered, use sophisticated models to sample and measure carbon levels and provide farmers with technology and metrics to improve their land management decisions.

“However, signing up to a project does not restrict a farmer’s ability to decide how their farm is run. We simply provide another lens through which to review and optimise a farm’s systems and operations. Farmers want to be good stewards of their land and these projects quantify that and enable farmers to be rewarded.”

AgriProve continues to innovate and recently collaborated with Ceres Tag – creator of the world’s first direct-to-satellite animal monitoring platform – to give farmers access to cutting-edge smart ear tag technology to enhance livestock management.

In a world-first, AgriProve has developed an industry-leading software platform, Ready Graze, to link grazing management with soil carbon and offers a financing mechanism for landholders to access the Ceres Tag and Ready Graze technology using future carbon credits.

“The carbon market will become a trillion-dollar market and there are tremendous opportunities for Australian farmers to unlock greater performance and profitability and be part of that market,” said Matthew.

*Australian Carbon Credit Units last traded at $33 AUD. Source www.accus.com.au (30/05/2024)