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 of the methods for carbon dioxide removal (CDR).

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 for example reforestation and bamboo farming.

Carbon farming methods might have additional costs. Some countries have government policies that give financial incentives to farmers to use carbon farming methods.^[5]

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.^[6]

Carbon farming is not without its challenges or disadvantages. This is because some of its methods can affect ecosystem services. For example, carbon farming could cause an increase of land clearing, monocultures and biodiversity loss.^[7] It is important to maximize environmental benefits of carbon farming by keeping in mind ecosystem services at the same time.^[7]