Nebraska Soil Carbon Project
The Nebraska Soil Carbon Project is a collaboration with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the Upper Big Blue and Central Platte NRDs, The Nature Conservancy, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Cargill, Target, and McDonald's. Our goal is to team up with 100 producers to install 100,000 acres of new soil health practices on central Nebraska cropland over five years. Farmers who enroll will be compensated for adopting cover crops, no till, and/or diverse rotations.
To learn more and enroll, please reach out to the Upper Big Blue NRD: mebel@upperbigblue.org or call (402) 362-6601.
- Farmer Resource: Recruitment and Enrollment Basic Information (PDF)
Overview
- Farmers can adopt new soil health practices that store carbon in the soil. That carbon can be used to offset a private company's emissions.
- Farmers may qualify for financial assistance to implement one, all, or a combination of the following practices: cover crops, no-till, and diverse crop rotations.
- Farmers can sign up for a joint NRCS and private payment of $9.50 - 45.00 per acre per year, depending on practice(s). Payments are not linked to carbon stored. Ecosystem Services Market Consortium will quantify outcomes. Non-NRCS contracts are non-binding.
- This program will continue for up to five years or until funds run out.
Why soil carbon? Why now?
Increased cropland soil carbon has multiple on and off-farm benefits, including more stable yields; improved nutrient, soil, and water status; and environmental stabilization.
Soil health practices increase soil carbon. These practices include no-till, cover crops, and diverse rotations. Markets are emerging to link soil carbon buyers and suppliers.
What is unique about this project?
The project is paying for practices, not carbon outcomes. This is because linking payments to rate of carbon storage and market rate of carbon payments could be risky to producers while the market is still developing.
Our project team represents a diverse cohort of public and private entities.• This project will provide involved companies (Cargill, Target, and McDonald's) with a way to meet part of their greenhouse gas reduction goals.
Project Outcomes
- Over five years, an estimated equivalent of 150,000 metric tons of CO2 stored
- Enhanced soil and nutrient retention on-field
- Getting to scale by linking farmers to new carbon payment opportunities
- Farmer-centric research, driven by farmer questions and interests
Value to Farmers
- $9.50 - 45.00 per acre annually of financial assistance.
- Payment depends on the type of soil health practice and enrollment in the ESMC pilot.
- Practices can include reduced tillage, diverse rotations, and cover crops according to NRCS practice codes.
- Opportunity to share conservation stories with a larger audience.
- Producers can take part in or lead field days, media spots, short project videos, etc.
- Detailed report on the impact of new soil health practices.
- Each producer will receive a report on the new practice's soil carbon and water quality outcomes. If they opt into providing additional economic data, producers can also receive a detailed report on the practice's financial return on investment (ROI).
- Opportunity to attend training events
- With local and national leaders in soil health, agronomy, and other relevant topics. Meals will be included.
- Connection with emerging carbon markets.
- Producer payments will not be linked to carbon storage, but will instead be paid by acres of practice adopted. Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC) will quantify carbon and water quality outcomes.
- On-demand technical assistance.
- Year-round assistance from NRD, NRCS, and TNC staff to support paperwork/application process and soil health practice management.
- There is no gross income or acre enrollment cap for NRCS payments.
- But producers are encouraged to enroll a reasonable number of acres given their operation size and soil health experience. More acres can always be submitted for enrollment in following years.
- Soil sampling and analysis for ESMC Pilot enrollees.
- All farms enrolled in the ESMC Pilot will be sampled at the outset of the project and again in year 5 should the producer remain enrolled for the entire 5 years of the project.
Expectation of Farmers
- Provide agronomic and soil data to project coordinators.
- Data privacy protections will be in place; see Data Privacy section below.
- Enroll in the NRCS RCPP payment program and/or the ESMC pilot.
- Producers will be encouraged to enroll in both the NRCS RCPP and the ESMC Pilot programs, but will have the option of just enrolling in one of these components and not the other. The NRCS RCPP program has many similarities to a typical EQIP program, and the ESMC Pilot will quantify project outcomes, including carbon generation. To receive soil sampling, farmers must be enrolled in the ESMC Pilot. For more, see the FAQs.
- Attend at least one field day, educational lunch, or related event per year.
- Maintain communications with NRCS regarding project enrollment.
- To ensure successful implementation of the practice and payment flow.
- To capture feedback on how the project can be improved.
- To assist with data collection.
- Meetings can take place in person, over Zoom, and/or via text as needed.
Producer Requirements to Apply
- Willing to meet project expectations of farmers, to ensure a producer's successful experience in the project.
- Acknowledgement that NRCS criteria will be used to rank applications.
- Generally, we are looking for producers across the spectrum of soil health experience. No prior experience with soil health practices is needed, but willingness to experiment with increasingly sophisticated practices will be prioritized.
- Not all applications will be approved through the NRCS ranking process on the first attempt, but producers can apply multiple times over the project's life. Additionally, a producer could still enroll in the ESMC portion of the project without being approved by NRCS, but should note ESMC payment rate is much lower than NRCS financial assistance.
- Unlike other NRCS programs, there is no gross income or acre enrollment cap for NRCS payments in this project.
- Payments are for new soil health acres only.
- But a measurable improvement of an existing practice could count, as long as it aligns with NRCS standards. For more on the NRCS standards around what counts as an improved practice contact your local NRCS Office or John Bush at 402 362-6601.
- The producer must farm in the Upper Big Blue or Central Platte NRDs.
- The NRCS funds for this project are dedicated to just this region. However, if a farmer outside of this geography wants to be involved in other aspects of the project, like the ESMC portion and training sessions, they are encouraged to reach out to a project coordinator.
Practices Available for Financial Assistance
The eligible practices, at a glance.
- 340 - Cover Crops
- Basic $23.79 (HU $38.66)
- Multiple Species $32.01 (HU $49.79)
- 329 - Residue & Tillage Management (No-Till)
- No Till $11.27 {HU $16.90}
- 328 - Conservation Crop Rotation
- Basic Rotation $9.42 (HU $11.30) (See graphics below for detailed explaination)
HU is the NRCS designation for Historically Underserved (HU) producers and includes farmers with limited resources, who are socially disadvantaged, beginning farmers and ranchers, and some US military veterans. If you think you are an HU farmer, please let your NRCS contact or a project coordinator know as you prepare your application.
What type of paperwork is involved for producers?
- NRCS Ranking Form and Form 1200: Completed once at the outset of the project by the producer and NRCS staff. Typically completed in person. Estimated time, 30-90 minutes.
- Enter field boundaries into ESMC: Completed once, after the NRCS contract is obligated. Completed by the producer, with optional assistance from a project representative. Completed digitally and takes 25-90 minutes.
- Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC) data entry: Completed annually, post harvest. Completed by the producer, with optional assistance from a project representative. The form is electronic and takes 15-90 minutes.
Why Ecosystem Services Marketplace Consortium (ESMC)
We encourage all farmers and landowners to seek out the ecosystem and carbon payments platform that works best for their situation. We are collaborating with ESMC on this project because they offer a low-risk way for farmers to explore carbon market payments for new soil health practices. Specifically:
- The contract is non-binding.
- Because this is an ESMC pilot program, farmers will sign annual contracts. If they choose to not renew their contracts, they can leave the program without penalty from ESMC. This enables farmers to try out a program without a binding, multi-year contract.
- The payments are non-variable.
- Many other carbon payments are variable year to year and based on actual carbon storage rates. This pilot will pay farmers a flat rate of $3 per acre/per year regardless of current market payment rates or the amount of carbon stored per year. This is intended to give farmers certainty around the level of revenue they'll generate through this project.
- Simplified data collection
- ESMC is piloting multiple data collection methods, including remote imaging, to reduce the data burden placed on farmers.
- “Stacked" payments
- ESMC is developing ways to compensate farmers for multiple benefits from the same practice on the same acres. In addition to soil carbon storage, benefits include water quality improvements and biodiversity.
- ESMC is a not-for-profit company.
- ESMC's non-profit structure minimizes transaction costs and maximizes value for farmers. They are a private-public partnership, with backing from Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research.
Data and Privacy
Our project is committed to ensuring that farmers are the primary beneficiaries of any value derived from their data.
Privacy
- Farmers own their raw data and control the fate of their data including who sees it, how it's used, and where and how long it's stored. Rights to their carbon are only transferred when they sign up with ESMC and complete data entry.
- Data will be stored by ESMC on a secure server for the duration of the producer's enrollment plus three additional years.
- The only entities automatically able to view farmer names, locations, and project data are TNC and ESMC. Their privacy policies can be found on their websites. Other project coordinators will not have access to raw farmer data without the express consent from the farmer.
- The only publicly shared data will be around whole-project outcomes, i.e., no publicly available information can be linked to any one farmer or location.
Transparency
- Farmers can choose to share their data with other project partners.
- Additional project partners could include The Upper Big Blue and Central Platte NRDs, The Nature Conservancy, and/or Colorado State University.
- Farmers will not be penalized in any way by not opting in to sharing their data with additional project partners.
Simplicity
- We are committed to collecting only the data needed to meet project outcomes - no more, no less.