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Agriculture is one of the world’s biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions: farming techniques such as tilling, tractor use, chemical fertilizer, herbicide, and pesticide application, and over-grazing, release carbon into the atmosphere at high rates.

However, there are alternative land management practices that can help store carbon safely in the soil instead, such as using compost and mulch, growing cover crops, and planting more trees and shrubs. These and several other practices are referred to as carbon farming. Not only does carbon farming have the potential to sequester carbon in the soil, but it can also bring lots of other benefits too – like increased crop yields and improved water holding capacity in the soil (leading to greater water efficiency).

Earth’s carbon is stored in five main pools: soils, ocean, atmosphere, biosphere, and fossils. Carbon flows between these pools in an exchange called the carbon cycle.

Currently, the carbon pools are far from balanced. There is too much carbon in the atmosphere and not enough in our soils and trees. Even as we replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources, the excess carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere.

Using Carbon Farming techniques, farmers can repair this imbalance, assist to lower the effects of climate change, and be paid to store carbon back in trees or soils. At the same time, these Farming techniques improve soil health and water retention on farm. These effects are known as ‘co-benefits’.

Carbon farming is successful when carbon gains resulting from enhanced land management and/or conservation practices exceed carbon losses.

Although Carbon farming has been practiced in developed world for a number of years, it’s a pretty new avenue for agricultural practitioners in underdeveloped and developing country like Nepal.

To be eligible for carbon credits farmers have to follow certain methodologies and the processes to make their claims which are different according to the different Carbon Standards.

Designing and developing a carbon project takes time and requires some technical expertise. It may also require financial support for the initial set-up. A project developer is needed to guide the farmers to go through all the process to successfully design a project. Such expertise is available from Carbon Farmers of Nepal.

The following steps are useful to design and develop a carbon project.

Project developer along with farmers share their interest and carry out meetings regarding the current agricultural practices of the farmer and figure out which project is feasible for the given location which matches the farmer’s interest.

The project developer then identifies which type of project needs to be developed i.e. afforestation, reforestation, soil carbon, methane reduction, etc.

One needs to be aware that a significant amount of time and money needs to be invested to develop a carbon project. The Project Developer may offer support with these things.

Analyze why it would be attractive to engage in undertaking a carbon sequestration project and what are the driving motivations. Farmers should be informed about the process and the smallholders should be supported in other agriculture-based income-generating opportunities so there is more than one win/win.

Farmers/villagers and/or co-operatives, along with advice from the Project Developer can identify who wants to participate and have land or forest which can qualify for the project type determined by the project developer/ farmer. The project boundary (geographically) has to be established.

The project area needs to be big enough to generate enough emission reductions or carbon storage to qualify for a carbon project. In addition, clear land-use and tenure rights are essential and farmers should be willing to sign a farm contract for at least 30 years giving the rights to project developer for selling the carbon credits.

Barren lands may also be utilized.

To organize, aggregate, and represent farmers, an institution is required, such as a community-based organization, farmer cooperative, NGO, etc., which is trusted by the project participants. It should have a robust and transparent institutional set up, with good governance.

The institute will work on behalf of project developer to implement and monitor the project activities.

The baseline and methodology need to be selected. Projects must use approved methodologies to calculate emission reductions. The project’s chance of being registered and the likelihood of more rapid project preparation increases by using approved methodologies.

Developing new methodologies can be resource- and time-intensive and may not be justified for smaller projects.

In coordination and support with farmers, the project developer will carry out the following activities which will lead to project design document (PDD) and registration of project.

The project developer determines a third-party certifier (accredited by a specific carbon standard) who will review the Carbon Project Document. It is important for the project to be validated to ensure the transparency of the project design.

The VERs of the validated project are kept in a Registry on behalf of the owner until they are bought.

To find out more, please contact us.

WithOneSeed Community Forest Programme: developed by xpand Foundation, it is the first social enterprise acting on climate change through community lead forestry and carbon markets in Timor-Leste. It is dedicated to improving the resilience of subsistence communities to make environments sustainable, end poverty and hunger, deliver agroforestry education, and create regional and international partnerships.

ArBolivia: a business solution to deforestation in the Bolivian Amazon, which is driven by large-scale agriculture and by poverty and poor land management in the form of slash and burn subsistence farming. The project enables poor farmers to manage their land more sustainably whilst helping them to grow, harvest, and sell native hardwood trees.

“4 per 1000” Initiative: An international initiative that aims to demonstrate that agricultural soils play a crucial role in stabilising food security and climate.