Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
programmes run through USDA include payment
for grassland, farm, ranch and wetland preserva-
tion or restoration. EQIP funding can provide
farmers and ranchers with payments to help
share the cost of implementing practices like
renewable energy, energy conservation, nutri-
ent management and water enhancement.
More recent programmes have focused on a
market-based approach where producers who
implement practices to reduce water pollution
can receive credits that can be sold in a market.
In 2012, the Secretary of Agriculture anno-
unced a new water quality trading programme
in the Chesapeake Bay region, where poultry
farmers in particular can take advantage of
such a programme (USDA, 2012). Additional
programmes are continuing to emerge and pro-
vide opportunities to increase sustainability in
grazing systems.
practices include feeding edible oils, reducing
the age of livestock at harvest, or reducing the
number of days on feed (Government of
Alberta, 2011b). Farmers and ranchers imple-
menting these practices can receive credit for
their new practices and sell them in the market
to earn additional income. In this context,
carbon markets can be promising for sustaina-
bility by fulfilling all three components of sus-
tainability - reducing environmental impact,
social benefit from food production and
reduced public health impacts from lower
emissions as well as additional income for
farmers and ranchers to maintain their
operations.
Livestock production in Central America is
an important livelihood for many farmers; how-
ever, deforestation continues to be a major pro-
blem associated with agriculture. For example,
in Nicaragua, it is estimated than 26% of the
nation's native forest was cut down between
1995 and 2000. To combat this deforestation
and encourage the development of silvopasto-
ral systems (management that plants trees or
shrubs into grazed, permanent pastures) pay-
ment for ecosystem services have been imple-
mented by governments, the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and
the World Bank. Ranchers are able to receive
payment if they adopt a number of different
types of practices including planting trees,
shrubs or live fences around cattle pastures
(Fig. 13.3). These practices can provide signifi-
cant social and environmental benefits by
increasing carbon storage and biodiversity,
while maintaining food production (Garbach
et al
., 2012). Though payments are modest so
far (about US$2 a day in the FAO/World Bank
programme), the programme appears to be
working. In Costa Rica, participating farmers
reduced degraded pasture by more than
60%, storing an estimated 25,000 t of carbon.
Ranchers have also seen significant increases
to biodiversity as a result of these policies with
an increase in bird species on farms adopting
ecosystem service practices compared with
those not implementing new practices (UN
FAO, 2006). Farmers have stated that the extra
income associated with payment for ecosystem
services is a significant motivating factor
behind the adoption of these practices for sus-
tainability (Garbach
et al
., 2012).
Carbon offset markets for
sustainability
Carbon trading markets are another ecosystem
service payment programme increasing in the
USA and globally, some of which allow for farm-
ers and ranchers to implement practices to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions and trade
their permits in a market. While carbon markets
provide a tangible economic benefit for farmers
and ranchers, they also provide ecosystem ser-
vices and social benefits through reduced green-
house gas emissions. The Climate Action
Reserve, a non-profit organization developing a
series of protocols for agricultural greenhouse
gas emission reductions, first adopted a US live-
stock protocol for methane digesters in 2007
(Climate Action Reserve, 2010a). Through this
programme, farmers can adopt a methane gas
digester to reduce methane emissions and sell
credits for those emissions in a carbon market.
A similar programme was developed for live-
stock in Mexico in 2009 (Climate Action
Reserve, 2010b).
Government programmes are also
advancing carbon markets and trading that
include agriculture. In Alberta, several pro-
tocols have been developed for reducing
greenhouse gas emissions in livestock, dairy
and pork production (Government of Alberta,
2011a). For livestock producers, eligible
