Whether it’s due to government policies or carbon credit incentives, veteran no-tillers are getting the short end of the stick. With most carbon credit companies refusing to accept veteran no-tillers in their programs, you can see why I think the current rules are unfair.
With these same concerns being common among Canadian no-tillers, Rachel Hor points out that the Canadian prairies have made tremendous strides in improving soil health in recent decades, mostly due to the widespread adoption of no-till. She is the head of CarbonTerra, a Saskatchewan company focused on developing carbon-neutral ecosystems in western Canada.
Little Credit for No-Till
While many carbon credit programs only accept newly no-tilled acres, Saskatchewan presents a unique challenge as 93% of their ground in 2016 was already being cropped with no-till or reduced tillage.
For some reason, there’s a lack of respect by the Canadian government as to the dramatic impact no-till has had on carbon sequestration in western Canada. A major argument is the difficulty of sequestering additional carbon on ground that’s been no-tilled for decades, even though research shows no-till in the western Canadian prairies can sequester 1½ tons of carbon per acre every year. This is the same as taking 3 million gasoline-powered vehicles off the road each year.
Another concern is the permeance of soil-stored carbon, which could be released into the atmosphere with a switch back to intensive tilling.
Long-term studies demonstrate a positive carbon change in carbon levels, even up to 3 decades after transitioning to…
