Can farmers reap biodiversity market benefits?
My key takeaways from this podcast were:
- Trinity Agtech believes that carbon is just one part of the story, that farmers have much more to offer in terms of environmental benefits
- Their accounting tool is called Sandy, as âanother person on the farmâ
- The tool is used to measure changes in soil carbon, as well as farm impacts on soil, natural capital, biodiversity and water
- Carbon is still a big part of what they do. They measure changes in soil carbon â which farmers can monetise via offset markets â using a combination of soil sampling and modelling
- They find that farmers can use Sandy, and evidence of improved biodiversity, to achieve a premium on their carbon offsets.
- They cite one example where a farmer sold carbon offsets for £100 per tonne of CO2 avoided, because of additional biodiversity improvements, versus average trades of £35-40/ tCO2
- But this market for biodiversity premiums is in its infancy Trinity Agtech is a young company only a few years old, but says it already has 1,500 farming customers in Britain and the EU
- The company plans to expand next into the United States and South America