Carbon prices are fluctuating dramatically this year, but what hasn’t changed is the interest of companies in helping farmers generate and monetize carbon credits. A number of different carbon accounting systems including Verra, COMET-Farm and Climate Action Reserve can be used in the process of validating that carbon credits were generated. These accounting systems have different standards and approaches, but they have one thing in common: large amounts of data need to be provided by farmers in order to complete their accounting calculations and produce a valid carbon credit.
Farm management practices, planting date, crop types, products applied, tillage history, and historical field boundary data needs to be submitted by growers to their carbon credit validation partner as part of the carbon accounting models. This data shows which farming practices are used, which changes have been implemented over the years, and the net amount of CO2 that either has not been emitted or has been sequestered - depending on the method of calculation.
It can be a difficult process for both the farmer and their carbon credit validation partner to collect and collate this data in a way that makes it possible to run the various carbon credit calculations. For most farmers (including the 75% of farmers in the United States collecting Machine Data), this data is already available through the operational data that has been collected during planting, application, harvest, and tillage events with in-cab displays and that is now stored on OEM platforms like MyJohnDeere, Climate FieldView, CNHi’s PLM connect, Trimble connected farm, and more.
"It used to be time consuming to transfer the exact data required from these OEM platforms to 3rd party platforms like carbon credit programs..."
It used to be time consuming to transfer the exact data required from these OEM platforms to 3rd party platforms like carbon credit programs, but Leaf has simplified and streamlined this process so that anyone can easily use Farm Management data to build products like carbon accounting programs. Organizations that work with Leaf can retrieve consistent grower / farm / field structure across the different farm data platforms and translated Field Operations that are automatically associated with all relevant Field Boundaries. In other words, teams that use Leaf become instantly compatible with Farm Management data from any platform and can focus all their effort on their core product.
From fertilizer applications to planting, cover crop seeding, crop protection and harvest, Leaf makes it simple to access standardized and aggregated Farm Management data so that it becomes quick and easy to submit to any carbon program or provider of choice. At Leaf we recognize the importance of carbon credits as a source of income for growers, as well as the agtech ecosystem that is getting built in order to support this process. Leaf is THE data infrastructure provider for agriculture, and by making ag data easily accessible, we enable our ecosystem partners to lower the amount of time and money they spend on accessing and converting data from the various OEM providers.
If you are already working with Leaf, or are looking at joining our ecosystem, and would like to see first-hand how you can help your farmer clients gather and submit data for their carbon credit program, please get in contact - I’d love to show you how!
