Submitted by: Cameron Ford, on behalf of Northeastern Ontario Region

In 2020, Bayer announced its new Carbon Program, which rewards participating farmers for adopting on-farm practices that reduce their overall carbon footprint. The program, currently only available in the US and Brazil, rewards farmers with $3 USD per acre for using low- or no-till techniques, and an additional $6 USD per acre for using cover crops. Doing both of these practices nets the farmer $9 USD (about $11.80 CAD) per acre per year.

Photo courtesy of USDA NRCS

This system works by generating carbon offset credits. The farmers sequester the carbon, Bayer pays them for it and assumes control of the carbon credits which can then be sold on a carbon offset market to other companies or individuals to offset their own carbon emissions. While this program is not yet available in Canada, it’s likely that the carbon market will continue to develop and could soon provide an alternative source of income for Ontario farmers. Bayer suggests that as the demand for carbon offsets increase; the rewards for farmers could also increase.

Carbon sequestration, besides being a potential revenue source, also benefits the productivity of a farm itself. As plants grow, they absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide from the air and use it to photosynthesize. The carbon is then used to form the plant matter. When the plant decomposes some of the carbon is returned to the atmosphere, while some ends up being stored underground, forming the basis of soil organic carbon (SOC). The trick of carbon sequestration is to maximize the amount of carbon being stored in the soil and minimize the amount being returned to the atmosphere. 

When it comes to returning carbon to the soil, not all agricultural practices are equal. A recent study conducted by University of Guelph researchers Claudia Wagner-Riddle and Susantha Jayasundara in the Cochrane district of Northern Ontario compared the effects of different agricultural land use types on carbon storage. Using the SOC measurements from permanent forests as a baseline, they then compared that value to SOC measurements from both permanent pasture fields and arable fields used for cropping.