Low Carbon Agriculture
From a low base, low-carbon farming is gathering pace.
3 minutes to read
Last week I headed up to Stoneleigh Park to attend the Low Carbon Agriculture Show.
The main themes revolved around unlocking the value of increasing natural capital and carbon on estates and farms. But reducing energy costs through technology and innovation was also a key talking point.
The various seminars, if you can sit through the ubiquitous marketing spiel, were informative with some inspiring case studies. So what did I learn and takeaway from this year's event?
There was a general sense and buzz around the show that agriculture and land management is on the cusp of a shift in attitude towards investing in low-carbon technology and emerging carbon credit or biodiversity markets.
No doubt driven by the change in subsidy systems and volatile input prices putting pressure on land income.
The scale of the emissions "problem" was constantly illustrated. One stat that stuck out was the global warming potential of the wheat-to-bread supply chain, where the farming share of the emissions was a notable 57%.
But according to Defra's 2021 Farm Practices Survey, only 58% of farmers are currently taking action to reduce greenhouse emissions from their farms.
When it came to reducing emissions, an arable farmer from Hampshire showed what's possible by changing the approach to land management. The farmer had moved to regenerative farming principles several years ago. He switched to minimum/no-tillage, changed the rotation and varieties used, and planted nearly 400 trees within the cropping fields. Over a period of 20 years, fertiliser usage has been reduced by 18% and diesel by 40%.
Amongst other measures, the combined result is a farm that offsets over 400 t CO2 equivalents more than it produces.
For those land managers looking to be paid for reducing their carbon emissions, one of the talks outlined the income opportunities. The independently certified carbon credits for woodland and peatland are established and running. It was said that these schemes could generate annually £100 to £150 per hectare under the woodland code and £50 to £250 per hectare for the peatland equivalent.
A soil carbon code for carbon sequestered in the ground is still very much in its infancy. Delegates were told that there is very little evidence of what that demand was and relatively little activity at present. But prices were fetching between £20 to £50 per tonne of carbon sequestered. Apparently, a third of farmers in a recent survey said they would like to get into this market.
But a hedgerow carbon code might be the scheme that will appeal to a more significant number of landowners and managers. In England alone, hedges already store nine million tonnes of carbon. This could be easily boosted by letting the hedges grow bigger and filling in gaps. And considering that hedgerows sequester carbon at twice the rate of woodland because of their three-dimensional linear structure – this scheme will be an attractive income proposition when launched.
It's all well and good taking action to reduce or sequester carbon or boost biodiversity, but all farms and estates involved will need to have some way to map and monitor their natural capital.
Bringing space down to earth was the theme of a presenter from the European Space Agency (ESA). They believe satellite technology will become an important and widespread way to keep track of the natural capital biomass and value generated on farms and estates. And they are putting their money where their mouth is.
The ESA offers funding, up to 200,000 euros per feasibility study, for companies to develop new, space-based services. The space agency has already been involved in projects that can measure agroecosystems.
Satellite technology will become more accurate in measuring carbon sequestration and less reliant on validation through ground-based assessments. In time, it will be as simple as looking at the latest satellite imagery of your land on your mobile, pinpointing individual hedgerows or trees and immediately producing a report on the change in the natural capital value or amount of carbon sequestered.
The event showed that after decades of taking the high road leading to more and more inputs and energy usage, the low road to reduced carbon emissions in agriculture is starting to gather pace.