No-Tillage Farmers Look to Earn Carbon Credits

This week it was announced that South Australian no-till farmers were hoping to receive carbon credits due to the notion that their farming practices reduce carbon dioxide emissions by cutting soil oxidation and not requiring the burning of stubble. According to the Conservation Agriculture Alliance if such a deal was to go through about half of that states farmers might qualify. A memorandum of understanding was signed with carbon credit retailer Carbon Planet. You may recall we mentioned zero-till farming in Brazil last month. In case you’ve forgotten what it was all about we would encourage you to have a peek at the seven benefits listed after the fold. These were lifted from the site of the Western Australian No-Tillage Farmers Association (WANTFA), who started out in 1992 to reform farming methods. And they need to, as soil salinity is the greatest immediate problem afflicting the West. The area of salt affected land in Western Australia is increasing at a rate of one football field per hour, with about 450 species of native flora and 250 species of invertebrate water fauna facing extinction in Western Australia’s wheat belt. Due to WANTFA’s success they’ve since spawned associations in other states and in New Zealand, now totalling 4,000 members that make up the aforementioned ::Conservation Agriculture Alliance, via ABC.