Carbon Project General - Project Principles

31.05.2023

The following guideline outlines the main important operating conditions for the eAgronom Carbon Program (the Program). These are requirements to obtain externally validated and globally recognised certification for our carbon credits - which is needed to access the global voluntary premium carbon market, and gain reliable, high carbon sales prices to pay the participating growers. eAgronom certifies its Carbon Program, and registers its credits with Verra, the most recognised and trusted carbon credit certifier in the world. More than 60% of the global voluntary carbon credit transactions are made with Verra certified credits. The following principles are based on Verra VM0042 Methodology For Improved Agricultural Land Management, V2.0, for more detailed information please see: https://verra.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/VM0042-Improved-ALM-v2.0.pdf 

Applicability

The eAgronom Program is currently applicable only to land with non-perennial rotation. 

Additionality

Projects must prove so-called additionality. Projects may be considered additional if its activities:

• Are expected to generate additional benefits over the initial baseline case.

• Are not required by law (e.g if cover cropping would be required by law)..

• Incentivise on-farm change towards carbon sequestration or emission reductions.

• Would not be initiated, or continue, without the carbon income.

Constraints

The area used for Carbon Project must have been cropland for at least 10 years before enrolling in the program, i.e the project area shall not be cleared of native ecosystem within the 10-year period prior to the Carbon Project start date.

Crediting period

The Program will allow farmers to generate carbon revenue for up to year 2041 (included). The crediting period for sequestration activities will last until 2041 with a minimum total longevity of 30 years, meaning the . monitoring activities must continue up to 30 years. 

Carbon pool

The reportable carbon pool, into which carbon sequestration is made, can include soil organic carbon and above ground woody biomass.

Applicable farming practices

The following farming practices are currently approved and awarded to the eAgronom Program (if possible to apply):

• Transition from conventional practices into conservation agriculture practices in arable production:

  • Reduce soil disturbance while securing a good soil structure: 

    • reducing tilling and/or implementing no tillage,

    • strip tillage

    • reduce the number of passes

    • reduce the tillage depth

    • occasional ploughing for perennial weed control

  •  Increase soil cover: 

    • Implement or intensify the frequency of cover crops (or catch crops) if the situation allows it:

      • When the weather and the rotation allows it, include a cover crop between the harvest and the following crop

      • Improve cover crop quality and adaptability to local conditions and period of the year

      • Undersow and mixed cropping (eg. companion cropping)

      • Consider winter crops as a way to cover the ground in absence of any cover

• Crop residue management: leave as much crop residue as possible on field after harvests thus increasing the biomass left on field and protecting soil from erosion and moisture evaporation in stubbles

• Nitrogen fertilizer reduction 

  •  by at least 5% in absolute compared to baseline 

  • improve nitrogen inorganic inputs

  • improve nitrogen organic inputs

    • farm manure, slurry, digestat or waste water slurry use is encouraged while replacing synthetic sources of nitrogen fertilization

    • adjust crop rotations to enable legumes (either as cash crop or cover crop) that would be a natural source of nitrogen

• Crop rotations on fields involved in the carbon program may change or be optimised as an effect of the aforementioned applicable practices.

Eligibility

• Agricultural fields involved in the project should have been in the same land use class for the past 10 years (no fields which came from recent land conversion e.g. deforestation or grassland to cropland);

• Fields are not used for Grazing livestock or as Rotational grassland 

• Fields are not a classified as permanent grassland, peatland or wetland

• No biomass burning on field

• Not involved in any other carbon sequestration or GHG emission program without approval of eAgronom after an internal compatibility assessment. 

• Farmers need to implement new agricultural practices

  • if the farmer has already been implementing those practices for more than 2 years, the area and activities are not eligible

Additional comments on practices: 

To this date, due to lack of clarity or simple MRV solutions for specific situations, we do not recognize the following practices in our program despite their beneficial impact on soil health and potential carbon sequestration: 

• application of biochar 

• woody biomass

When selecting your fields, consider the following: 

• choose all fields where you intend to apply a practice change during the contract period and only activate fields that are subject to at least one practice change in the ongoing season.

• exclude fields that present a high risk of tenure changes within the contract period.

Water management and irrigation are not included as a practice change.

What affects your sequestration levels negatively? 

The following crops can enter the rotation but will either not generate Project Credits or could even influence the sequestration levels negatively in a given year: 

• Root crops in certain seasons (e.g potatoes) 

• Vegetables

Occasional ploughing (once every 5 years) is accepted by the program although it will negatively impact the amount of Project Credits generated on your farm in the given year.

Baseline assessment

The Program requires farmers to provide basic historical farm management data for the last three years, to prove eligibility to the Program, and then a more detailed overview once enrolled. Historical data include crops, rotational history, crop yields, past practices, fertiliser and input use. This data will only be used for certification requirements, and for the improvement of the carbon program. It will not be sold further, or used for any other purpose.

Adding land to contract

The Program has some flexibility in adding farms and fields with time. 

• Additional land area can be added to the Program at any time after receiving eAgronom’s consent.

• Any new area added to the Program must comply with the requirements of the Program.

• The baseline for new areas added to the Program will be set based on the date of the first practice implementation.

• New areas added to the Program will start generating credits once the new areas have been validated and confirmed as being part of the Program.

• New areas added to the Program will extend the existing crediting periods of the Program 

Early project exit

The Program has some flexibility in removing farms and fields. 

• Fields or farms can be removed from the Program at any time after receiving eAgronom’s consent.

• Once a field has been removed from the Program it can’t be added back. Additionality will most probably be lost for any other carbon project You might want to join in the future with someone else.

• The decision to remove fields / farms from the Program must be communicated to eAgronom at least 30 days before ceasing the agreed practices on the fields.

• If you have been part of the Program for at least five years, You agree that we can remotely monitor the Fields up to 30 years to make sure that there is no leakage and loss of permanence. 

• If you have been part of the Program less than five years or We identify abnormal leakage and You have sold any Trade Credits, then unfortunately these Trade Credits will be deemed lost and You will have to pay back the proceeds received from the sold Trade Credits.

• We keep the amount of Trade Credits which will be issued or have issued regarding the relevant field and You must repay any advance compensation received for the relevant field and pay interest on the advance compensation which has to be repaid, at the rate of 8% per annum, calculated from the date of receipt of the compensation by You.

External verification

eAgronom will engage an external auditor to verify that the Program is generating carbon credits in accordance with the certifier’s requirements, and that the grower is following the implementation conditions of the Farmer Carbon Contract. The Farmer is expected to collaborate with such audits although given the number of farms in the project chances that Your farm will be audited are small. 

Leakage

Carbon leakage is the term for when the implementation of carbon projects causes an increase in GHG emissions outside the project boundary. This is not allowed. For example increasing the quantity of organic fertiliser normally applied to fields and significantly decreasing farm productivity may result in carbon leakage.

Permanence

A high value Carbon removal program must prove so called permanence, that is, make it highly probable that the carbon stored from the Program, will never be released into the atmosphere again. This means for example that fields under conservation practices cannot be returned to conventional farming again. To manage such risk, according to certification requirements, the Program only creates commercial credits, i.e Trade Credits for about 75-80% of the carbon sequestration generated. The rest goes into a so-called permanence buffer pool, i.e Permanence Buffer, to be used in the event when certain external reasons force a cancellation of practices. This Permanence Buffer protects growers under the Program, keeping the credibility and the prices of the Trade Credits sold high. 

Reporting / documentation

The Program requires farmers to provide data via our Platform and documentation for each of the fields to be included under the Program, such as (but not limited to):

• Their location and reference details

• Three years historical agronomical and operational data

• The scope of planned practice changes 

• On an annual basis, agronomical and operational data for the previous year.