The Dirt on Dirt

“Agriculture alone accounts for 9% of all GHG emissions in the U.S. (U.S. EPA, 2020) Crop lands may have a net negative or net positive impact on the climate, depending on land management. This project is the first of its kind in the US, designed to take advantage of our land’s unique capacity to sequester and store CO2 and expand the positive role that agriculture can play to address climate change.”

– Siddarth Yadav, Director of Project Research

Project Type: Soil Enrichment: Nature Based Removal

Carbon Standard: CAR

Vintage: 2020-2021

Additionality: Farmers are always seeking increased crop yield but without the additional funding from carbon credits, farmers will not switch to regenerative agriculture practices that can improve yields and reduce carbon emissions, because of the upfront cost and risk.

Permanence: Permanence is ensured by use of a 14.5% buffer pool in case of a reversal of land use changes.

Site Visit: June 2022

This project is bringing together 2,000 farmers all over the U.S. and over 6 million acres of improved sustainable agricultural land management practices. Indigo Ag helps farmers to implement climate-smart practices through an integrated system of extension and outreach, modeling, agronomy support, and digital data collection tools. This project is the first of its kind and is incentivizing farmers to change their methods to sustainable agricultural management practices. Regenerative agriculture practices will increase soil organic carbon (SOC) storage and reduce net emissions of CO2, CH4, and N2O while improving soil health and crop yields.

The regenerative agricultural practices will make cropland more resilient over time to natural disturbances, helping to limit the economic risks to rural communities. Farmers can create a new revenue stream while increasing soil productivity by producing high-quality, registry-issued carbon credits. As carbon revenues and crop yield increase over time, the land will provide higher income for families in rural communities.

Outside of economic benefits, regenerative agriculture and reduced synthetic inputs (such as fertilizer) in farming operations can directly benefit local health outcomes through cleaner air and water and more nutritional food. Reduced synthetic inputs to cropland reduces contamination of groundwater and surface water which benefits the human population as well as the aquatic ecosystems.

• Potential for scalability will have global impact
• Reduced soil erosion
• Increase in Crop Yields
• Improved farm resilience to extreme weather
• Improved water quality
• Enhancement of wildlife habitat
• Consumers have access to healthy food

Most risks are mitigated by the project design – farming on privately owned land decreases leakage and illegal activities. One risk, of farmers dropping out is mitigated by the expansiveness and continued recruitment efforts of the program whereby farmers dropping out are replaced by new participants

• Natural disasters
• Getting farmers to adopt
• Leakage with cattle grazing and crop reduction
• Multiple programs to choose from, but farmers can only pick one
• Easier for farmers to switch from nitrogen-based to biological fertilizer