Carbon farming is a method of using on-farm agricultural practices to maximize how much carbon dioxide can be removed from the atmosphere by plants and sequestered into soil's organic matter. It prioritizes ways to boost farmland's ability to receive and hold carbon while minimizing the generation and release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide and methane. Carbon farming increases soil's organic matter and raises overall tilth and productivity.
Conventional agriculture techniques can degrade the quality of soil over time: as excessive tillage and harvesting remove organic residue, the resultant depletion of soil's organic carbon and biodiversity leads to a degraded soil structure vulnerable to increased runoff and erosion. These forces combine to drain the nutrients, carbon, and water from soil ecosystems, ultimately weakening the soil's overall health. Carbon farming provides a path to restore soil's organic carbon component and overall health. The concept is essentially synonymous with the idea of “regenerative agriculture" a process for restoring the organic health of soil and regenerating its fertility and productivity.
A growing network of scientists, farmers, and natural resource organizations are embracing land management frameworks based on carbon as a foundational aspect of the agricultural process. The approach has yielded greater rates of natural carbon capture, enhanced resilience in agricultural systems, and increases in important ecosystem services like water retention. This network is providing an expanding list of policies, technical assistance options, informational resources, and financial tools to support the implementation of the carbon farming framework
Explore this website to find information about specific practices and their co-benefits, access to available financial support mechanisms, and expanded resource centers that can help you understand and implement on-farm regenerative carbon farming techniques.
