Regenerative farming can enhance soil carbon cycling and has the potential to rapidly increase farm productivity.
This is according to Tom Dillion, director of Regenerate Outcomes – a company that supports farms during their transition to regenerative agriculture.
Using soil tests from Eurofins Agro UK, Regenerate Outcomes is partnering with farms to help enable a “regenerative system change”, Dillon said.
“The tests include vital phospholipid fatty acid (PFLA) analysis that is helping our farms improve soil health by better understanding the microbial composition of their soils.
“We are also helping our partner farmers to monitor soil carbon sequestration with the aim of generating soil carbon credits which form an additional farm income stream.”
Regenerate Outcomes has designed a programme to comply with the Verified Carbon Standards (VCS) and said its aim is to create a profit share agreement for participating farms.
This will include up to 67% of the value of Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) being distributed to the farm, subject to a minimum VCU performance, the company said. Participating farms do not pay any up-front costs to join the programme.
Dillon said he wants farmers to understand that, whilst carbon credits represent potentially valuable income for farms longer term, the focus is on providing a more “holistic approach that focuses on improving soil health, driving profit, and making ecological gains”.
“We are focussed on system change by engaging with our farms at an educative level to positively influence soil health and productivity,” he said.
