What is Carbon Farming?
The benefits of Carbon Farming (along with Carbon Sequestration) include less erosion and soil loss; better soil structure and fertility; less soil salinity, healthier soils, vegetation and animals; more biodiversity; buffering against drought; and greater water efficiency.
Carbon Farming is simply farming in a way that reduces Greenhouse Gas emissions or captures and holds carbon in vegetation and soils. It is managing land, water, plants and animals to meet the Triple Challenge of Landscape Restoration, Climate Change and Food Security. It seeks to reduce emissions in its production processes, while increasing production and sequestering carbon in the landscape.
Carbon Farming can range from a single change in land management, such as introducing no-till cultivation or grazing management, to a whole-of-farm integrated plan which maximises carbon capture and emissions reduction. Carbon Farmers have many practices to choose from to develop their plan, including:
- maximum groundcover (no bare earth)
- grazing management
- no-till cropping
- pasture cropping
- mulching
- green manure
- stubble retention
- cover cropping
- exhaust injection
- controlled traffic
- precision application (fertiliser)
- natural fertilisers
- soil inoculants (probiotics)
- soil stimulants
- compost
- compost teas
- Albrecht soil mineral balance
- Natural Sequence Farming
- water spreading
- Keyline Planning
- Subsoil ploughing
- Permaculture
- Biodynamics
- Biochar
- Activated clays
- Agroforestry
- Dung Beetles
- Landsmanship
- Rumen inoculants
- Low methane animal genetics
- Methane-reducing feed supplements
- Manure management
NOTE: Not all activities may be allowed under any Carbon Project. Seek advice if you are thinking of gaining a Carbon Credit from any of the above activities.
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