Rabo Carbon Bank Takes Pilot Program to Three States, Partners with Continuum Ag
In January 2021 Rabobank launched the Rabo Carbon Bank and has since been launching pilots in three categories: carbon farming, supply chain decarbonization and carbon reduction in retail.
As part of the Rabo Carbon Bank initiative, Rabo AgriFinance, a Rabobank subsidiary, is operating the pilots with farmers in three states. The pilot farmers are being advised by Continuum Ag for its soil health/agronomic advisement and carbon sequestration baseline measurements.
The practices being implemented are rooted in regenerative agriculture practices and include:
- Reduced tillage or no-till
- A variery of cover crop plantings
- Planting cash crops “green” into living cover crops
- More robust crop rotations
- Precision agriculture planting, applications of fertilizer and crop protection products, and/or irrigation
- A transition to natural fertilizer
“We will know the impact of our practices on carbon in the soil. No one else in the marketplace I’ve talked to is doing it that way and measuring,” John C. Barnes of Barnes Farming Corporation, a pilot participant said. “Some of the practices we’re already doing, but our management team are going to have opportunities to be exposed to some new ideas, some cutting-edge practices, that maybe would not have been economical on their own but with carbon payments become feasible.”
Rabobank shares these are the farmers, locations and crops enrolled in the pilot:
- Barnes Farming Corporation (North Carolina) – broccoli, peanuts, potatoes, soybeans, sweet potatoes, tobacco, watermelons and wheat
- Bruihler Farms (Iowa) – corn and soybeans
- D&D Horras Farms (Iowa) – corn and soybeans
- Jeffrey McDoniel Farm (Arkansas) – corn, rice and soybeans
- Miles Farm (Arkansas) – corn, cotton, rice and soybeans
“Feeding the world more sustainably is about continuous improvement. Every farm has a unique sustainability journey that has defined their success as a contributor to the food supply chain thus far,” Cristian Barcan, sustainability officer for Rabo AgriFinance and regional Rabo Carbon Bank officer said in a news release. “We’re helping our clients monetize a natural feature of their farms – the plants’ ability to capture carbon equivalents from the air – while improving their fields with healthy, nutrient-dense, biologically-enhanced, carbon-rich soils. The expected result is improved yield with lower costs and lower environmental impact.”
ContinuumAg will consult with each individual farmer in the pilot and provide tailored practices for soil health and carbon sequestration.
“As a farmer-led company, we are ecstatic to be a partner of the Rabo Carbon Bank. Rabo’s long-term vision and value proposition aligns with that of participating farmers and Continuum Ag,” said Mitchell Hora, founder and CEO of Continuum Ag. “We all seek more sustainably produced food, but these efforts will fail if the family farm isn’t also economically sustainable.”
