Sustainable agriculture practices are recognized for their effectiveness at increasing the soil's ability to store carbon. However, some are more practicable than others; some are more expensive to implement than others, requiring significant investment in new equipment or other inputs. Looking at these strategies requires that producers explore practices that are not only appropriate for the region in which they operate and work best with the crops they grow while allowing them to adapt to or mitigate the impacts of climate change. Producers must be able to identify the systems that will best suit their circumstances.
This session examined some carbon management "best practices" and also discussed a major challenge related to sequestration—the quantification of stored carbon. As expressed in Manitoba and Climate Change: A Primer: "the sheer number of farmers and complexity of the systems make the monitoring and verification of individual actions very difficult and expensive." As the market for carbon develops and the sale of offsets becomes more viable, measurement and verification of soil carbon stores will become increasingly critical. Those on the demand side of the carbon market will require accurate, valid and supportable measurements in order to give trades legitimacy domestically and internationally.
Speakers - Manitoba - Agriculture and Carbon Management Conference (February 2003)
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