By Chuck Abbott

Truterra, a subsidiary of farmer-owned Land O’Lakes, launched a carbon credit program on Thursday in which Microsoft, its first buyer, will pay $20 per ton for carbon sequestered in the soil. The program, called TruCarbon, “will help farmers generate and sell carbon credits to private sector buyers,” said the company.

Producers can generate the credits through practices such as no-till and cover crops, then use Truterra technology to verify the results through soil testing and other methods. Truterra said its data platform provides “a powerful soil health planning suite of tools to help them decide what is best for their business while optimizing their fields’ carbon credit potential.”

“TruCarbon is providing farmers new opportunities to be recognized and rewarded for their stewardship, creating new revenue opportunities for farm families as they adopt soil health practices, and increasing the focus on carbon storage in crop fields,” said Land O’Lakes chief executive Beth Ford.

Carbon markets have been proposed as a way to encourage climate mitigation by farmers.

REPOSTED FROM AGRICULTURE.COM