CARBON FARMING IN ILLINOIS
In celebration of climate week, ISAP is excited to announce a NEW fact sheet dedicated to carbon farming opportunities!
Illinois has over 23 million acres of cropland suitable for adoption of practices capable of increasing soil carbon and storage such as planting cover crops and reducing tillage, presenting an exciting opportunity for Illinois farmers to offer immediate, scalable solutions to climate change. In fact, using estimates from AFT’s Carbon Reduction Potential Evaluation Tool™, or CaRPE tool, implementation of these practices, could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 21 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents, equal to removing over 4.5 million passenger vehicles from Illinois roadways for one year.
While implementing these practices seems like an obvious choice for Illinois farmers, transitioning to systems that pose significant management and logistical challenges during times when profit margins are slim to negative is daunting.
ISAP is committed to identifying ways that farmers can successfully implement conservation cropping systems that benefit their bottom line. This fact sheet serves to introduce farmers to financial opportunities available for implementing practices that reduce GHGs, summarizing minimum requirements and payments from both traditional financial assistance programs and with market-based approaches.
