A Different Approach to Carbon Farming

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

A lot of carbon programs require big changes in agricultural practices, which often bring with them a lot of new risks. That’s why when Michael Ott, launched Cquesta he intentionally had one thing in mind: helping producers build deeper roots that sequester more carbon without requiring big changes in practices.

Ott... "When the farmer is buying their seeds, you know, they're ticking all the boxes of what they want. They want Roundup Ready, they want BT, they want this duration, etc, etc. We want there to be one more box that says deep roots/carbon sequestration, And then at the end, we will have forward sold their credit, and then they get a check at the end of the year. In order to make everyone make money on this, we've got to make this as easy as possible for the farmers. And that's what our system is. There's no change in agronomic practices. You do what you've always done. You're buying the seed from the same person, planting at the same time, spraying and harvesting at the same time, and you're going to get an extra carbon credit on the top of this. So that's how the system needs to work, because if you've got these programs where I'm asking farmers to change all sorts of practices, do this differently, and then they give you 5 an acre at the end or 20 an acre at the end, you're not paying them enough to change practices. So we want to just work within their existing agronomic practices."

Ott believes Cquesta is a few years from that, but they are excited to see its potential.