In the wake of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)’s historic $19.5 billion investment in climate-smart agriculture, agtech companies have a unique opportunity to help mitigate U.S. agriculture’s contributions to climate change. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report estimates that globally, agriculture’s potential to mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration is comparable to that of global wind energy. With the Department of Agriculture dedicating $850 million to supporting sustainable practices through existing programs and the IRA allocating $300 million to quantify carbon sequestration and greenhouse gases, how should agtech companies partner with USDA, farmers, advocates and the general public to effectively fight climate change? Part of that answer lies just beneath our feet — in measurement, modeling and outreach centered around soils and soil organic carbon.
Soil organic carbon develops from the decaying remains of plants and animals that contain carbon dioxide sucked from the atmosphere, and solar energy trapped by photosynthesis. Both the potential to trap carbon dioxide and the potential to power soil services make soil carbon invaluable in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
However, it is difficult to quantify, track, model and monitor changes to soil carbon. Soil is constantly in flux and distributed unevenly across the landscape, requiring large numbers of soil samples to detect small changes — which can be prohibitively expensive. This uncertainty can lead to confusion about whether soil carbon investments are actually having an effect, similar to issues experienced by forestry carbon programs.
Agtech companies can help reduce soil carbon uncertainties by partnering with the USDA to spearhead accurate inventories and monitoring of soil carbon nationally. Joining forces can accelerate progress on soil carbon-measurement technologies including near- and mid-infrared spectroscopy, remote sensing, maintaining long-term monitoring sites, and contributing to national soil databases. More accurate inventories will help established companies see a return on their net-zero investments, meet their climate commitments and build public confidence in their efforts.
While on-the-ground measurements of soil carbon are necessary to calibrate sensors and track soil carbon changes, using models such as the USDA’s COMET-Farm can provide estimates for hard-to-reach areas, reduce the number of samples that need to be taken and allow companies to estimate the impact of their investments at a landscape level.
However, these models have limited ability to accommodate different crops and regions and produce estimates with varying levels of confidence. Since the accuracy of these models is dependent upon the datasets used to run them, agtech companies can partner with the USDA to generate region-specific datasets through the Partnerships for Data Innovations (PDI) program. PDI will guide companies through both model development and implementation, ultimately reducing the cost of field sampling while increasing accuracy.
Finally, more accurate soil carbon measurements and better models are only part of the climate change solution — the other part is getting those measurements and information into the hands of the farmers that can use them. Farm management decisions are the product of a complex set of socioeconomic and cultural factors, and often require farmers to balance the tradeoffs between short-term returns and long-term sustainability. In order to maximize the reach of climate investments, agtech companies can partner with Natural Resouces Conservation Service extension agents and nongovernmental organizations such as the Carbon Cycle Institute to highlight the numerous co-benefits of increased soil carbon storage. These co-benefits (such as increased water storage and healthier soils) are among the main reasons that farmers adopt carbon farming practices. The need for technical knowledge and monitoring of soil carbon levels under these farming practices creates a market for technical assistance and decision support tools to reduce knowledge barriers and costs to farmers.
Agtech is currently experiencing a perfect storm. The IPCC report clearly stated agriculture’s role in addressing the climate crisis, while the federal government is signaling a desire to partner with the agricultural sector through the IRA. Agtech should seize on this opportunity by applying for IRA funding that makes it easier to take soil carbon measurements, develops updated region-specific models and makes it easier for farmers to access and interpret these results. What are the gains, for agtech companies, USDA, and farmers? A partnership that delivers more effective net-zero investments, improved public confidence, more funding to support farmers and hopefully a planet that continues to be livable.
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