Accelerating sustainable farming through innovative carbon capture schemes

The farming industry has set ambitious agriculture and food production environmental targets to reduce climate change over the coming years. This includes the National Farmers Union (NFU), which has set the goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the whole of agriculture in England and Wales by 2040. Through collaborative research and development initiatives and new innovations that are supported through project funding, the farming industry is actively working towards reducing emissions.

There has also been a lot of discussion about ‘Carbon Schemes’ in recent years, which aim to make farming more sustainable whilst also providing an additional income stream for farmers. These are administered in a number of ways, including soil carbon schemes, which reward soil improvement, and carbon credits, which farmers can earn by carrying out practices that reduce emissions.

Innovate UK Business Connect brought together project leads and their partners that are focused on sustainable farming to showcase their latest climate smart project outcomes and to explore working on future projects with new partners. It was great to facilitate these collaborations with agriculture innovators from across the UK that have benefitted from £30 million of funding through the Defra Farming Innovation Programme, delivered by Innovate UK.

Five key benefits of a carbon capture scheme

Carbon schemes were the main topic of conversation during the panel session at a recent Innovate UK Business Connect sustainable farming event, leading to active discussions with attendees. Five key points that came out of the conversations are:

1. Reducing carbon emissions on farms – It is key to know what your starting carbon stocks are – without this, you have no baseline to measure any changes. Looking at your carbon stocks need to be farm-specific, taking into account different soils and the varying ways in which they can store carbon to progress towards a net zero farm.
2. Using innovative carbon capture solutions – Activities to capture carbon are already carried out on many farms; however, to be a part of a scheme, you need to demonstrate activities above and beyond your normal farming practices. There is therefore concern that those already working towards carbon capture are being unfairly penalised.
3. Providing incentives for farms to capture carbon is important – Currently, the carbon schemes market is unregulated and not standardised, with the financial benefits for farms that capture carbon being unclear at this stage. The tools currently available to measure carbon often provide variable results, dependent on what they take into consideration, such as carbon sequestration. This can result in the ability to choose the tool that provides the best picture for the specific questions asked.
4. Balancing sustainable practices with producing diverse crop types – There is a real risk that with the dawn of the carbon schemes, the focus of farmers will turn to this, which may influence crop choices, rather than focusing on food production.
5. Accelerating sustainable carbon solutions – Innovation had a key role to play within the broader carbon scheme discussion, and the panel flagged the importance of utilising technologies that work towards reducing environmental impact, such as converting methane to a less potent gas, for example, carbon dioxide.

Contact us

If you have an innovation that will help to reduce carbon within the AgriFood industry, then we would love to hear from you. Please contact Lucy Mather to discuss you sustainable AgriFood innovation further.

Make sure to visit our AgriFood webpage for the latest news and funding opportunities from across the Innovate UK ecosystem.