With the implementation of applied biology and increasing or changing to more deep-rooted perennial grasses and legumes, it’s possible to increase soil carbon considerably in most farming systems.
These practices are eligible as a soil carbon project under the Australian Government’s Carbon Farming Initiative.
Other eligible practices include, but are not limited to:
- establishing, and permanently maintaining, a pasture where there was previously no pasture, such as on cropland or bare fallow
- retaining stubble after a crop is harvested
- converting from intensive tillage practices to reduced or no tillage practices
- altering the stocking rate, duration or intensity of grazing – changing grazing management and patterns
- modifying landscape or landform features to remediate land. For instance, water ponding activities – where water effect is ‘spread’ over a wider area, effectively increasing effective rainfall and carbon
- re-establishing or rejuvenating a pasture by seeding, i.e. pasture cropping or changing pasture species composition; over-sowing with deep-rooted perennial legumes
- application of Synthetic Fertilisers and Non-Synthetic Fertilisers (timing requirements around these applications) to address a material deficiency
- applying lime to remediate acid soils
- applying gypsum to remediate sodic or magnesic soils
- using mechanical means to add or redistribute soil through the soil profile – clay spreading and clay delving
- new irrigation (some definitions apply).
For a registered project to receive carbon credits, there must be an improvement on the land management activities conducted in the agricultural system during the baseline period, and at least one of the land management activities must be new or materially different from the equivalent land management activity conducted during the baseline period.
Thomas Elder Consulting has introduced a carbon farming service that can assist you with carbon farming projects and increase the productivity of your soil.