b'fertilizer company Yara, leverages agronomic knowledge and partnerships to create market opportunities for the carbon the companys enrolled acres sequestered.I dont sell anything to producers, I can only buy carbon credits, says Agoro Regional Sales Manager, Jerry Stephens. Right now, the methodology for creating carbon credits is where Agoro is focused, and that methodology is a set of rules used to develop a carbon credit. Stephens explains that the methodology is developed by a carbon registry and sets standards that ensure buyers know what they are buying and growers know what they are creating. Just like standards put into place to ensure that everyone producing and purchasing number two corn knows what they are getting, methodologies used to develop carbon markets ensure that the grower knows what they are creating, and the buyer knows what they are buying, he says. The Agoro Carbon team is building carbon opportunities outside of the cropping sectors and began offering pasture and rangeland carbon sequestration contracts in October 2021. It wasnt easy, Stephens says of the methodology created toEnsuring transparency throughout the carbon market is one offer pasture and rangeland carbon sequestration contracts. Itsdifficulty, Locus Ags CEO Chad Pawlak says.a really difficult thing to do, but we had buyers for those types of credits and interest from ranchers and livestock producers.Carbon sequestration credit opportunities are there for com-panies willing to develop new methodologies that help growers monetize them, says Stephens. Carbon sequestration credit opportunities are there for Taking a different approach, Locus Ag is also working to develop opportunities for growers to bolster their bottom linecompanies willing to develop new methodologies that through the sequestration of carbon in the soils they farm.help growers monetize them. We are using technology to bring forward products that create healthier soils, says Travis Kraft, director of U.S. row crops Jerry Stephensfor Locus Ag. CarbonNOW is built on the platform of utilizing the practices that are already in place within the industry and incorporating formulated Locus Ag products that have been proven to help drive the processes.mented and the amount of time the carbon will be monitored.We have to get into the practice of viewing carbon credits The A Word as another commodity, he says. I often ask growers, Raise your The 2017 U.S. Census of Agriculture reports that more than halfhand if youre growing oats this year. Very few hands raise, and of all U.S. cropland acres are already implementing no-till andwhen I ask why, the answer is always the same: There isnt much other conservation tillage practices, of those acres, nearly halfof a market for oats right now. Carbon credits are a commodity, have instituted some type of cover cropping.and we have to have buyers for a commodity. What we need to Thats troublesome, says Purdue University Associate Agdo is develop markets for legacy no-till and cover crop produc-Economics Professor Carson Reeling. If you think about whereers because we know that they are continuing to increase carbon all of the corn and soybeansa lot of the row cropsaretonnage in those fields. produced in the U.S., about 94% of the ag land in those areas areFor Locus Ag, the proprietary technology offered through already under those types of practices.the companys carbon-accelerating soil health probiotic prod-It also creates barriers to capitalizing on carbon marketuct offering, creates the additionality needed for entry into the opportunities for progressive growers who farm on the cuttingCarbonNOW programa platform that Kraft says allows grow-edge of soil health management.ers to both accelerate soil health, carbon capture and eligibility.Additionality is a word that leaves an aftertaste in mouths ofThe majority of row crop growers that started the enrollment those affected. The term is used to define the additional prac- process for CarbonNOW were eligible to join the program," he tices a grower must implement to qualify for a carbon program. says. Our eligibility rate is much higher than other programs and Stephens says additionality and permanency are commona big differentiator in the opportunity for growers to monetize contract terms used to define what new practices will be imple- the carbon they are capturing.56/ SEEDWORLD.COMJUNE 2022'