Carbon farming

Carbon farming is a set of agricultural methods that aim to store carbon in the soil, crop roots, wood and leaves. The technical term for this is carbon sequestration. The overall goal of carbon farming is to create a net loss of carbon from the atmosphere.^[1] This is done by increasing the rate at which carbon is sequestered into soil and plant material. One option is to increase the soil's organic matter content. This can also aid plant growth, improve soil water retention capacity^[2] and reduce fertilizer use.^[3] Sustainable forest management is another tool that is used in carbon farming.^[4] Carbon farming is one component of climate-smart agriculture. It is also one way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Agricultural methods for carbon farming include adjusting how tillage and livestock grazing is done, using organic mulch or compost, working with biochar and terra preta, and changing the crop types. Methods used in forestry include reforestation and bamboo farming. As of 2016, variants of carbon farming reached hundreds of millions of hectares globally, of the nearly 5 billion hectares (1.2×10¹⁰ acres) of world farmland.^[5]

Carbon farming tends to be more expensive than conventional agricultural practices. Depending on the region, carbon farmings costs US$3-130 per tonne of carbon dioxide sequestered.^[6] Some countries provide subsidies to farmers to use carbon farming methods.^[7] While the implementation of carbon farming methods can reduce/sequester emissions, it is important to also consider the effects of land use changes with respect to the conversion of forests to agricultural production.^[8]