Sustainable Soil Management Is More than What and How Crops Are Grown - Principles of Sustainable Soil Management in Agroecosystems - page 377

All these are of direct benefit to producers and society as a whole. The relevant
socioeconomic indicators include the following: farm profit, factor productivity (effi-
ciency), amount of pesticides applied per unit of output, yield per unit area and per
farmer practicing sustainable intensified systems, and stability of production. The
relevant ecosystem service indicators include the following: clean water provision-
ing from catchment areas under an intensive agriculture area; reduced erosion, both
wind and water (Mello and Raij 2006; Laurent et al. 2011); increased biodiversity/
wildlife within agricultural landscapes; and increase in carbon sequestration and
reduction in carbon footprint and GHG emissions of methane and nitrous oxide
(Baig and Gamache 2009; Kassam et al. 2011c; FAO 2012).
It is important to identify key indicators that would detect changes in the desired
direction at the field, farm, and physiographic landscape level within whose boundary
the farm is located and whose management has an impact on the aggregate behavior
of the landscape as a whole. CA-based ecosystem services operate in different parts of
the world and include the following: the agricultural carbon offset scheme in Alberta,
Canada; the hydrological services from the Paraná III Basin in Brazil; the control of
soil erosion in Andalusia, Spain; the controlling of water erosion and dust storms and
combating of desertification and drought in the Loess Plateau of the Yellow River
basin in China; and reducing susceptibility/increasing resilience to land degradation
in Western Australia. Controlling land degradation, particularly soil erosion, caused
by tillage, exposed soils, and depletions of SOM, has been a main objective of most
of such initiatives. Such landscape schemes are possible only when the landscape has
a contiguous network of sustainable soil management that mediates such large-scale
environmental and economic benefits to the producers and rural as well as urban soci-
ety. With sustainable soil management practices being applied over large areas, it is
then possible to overlay landscape-level development programs to harness large-scale
ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration in Alberta, Canada; water-related
services in Paraná Basin, Brazil; or erosion control in Andalusia, Spain.
14.7.1 c anaDa : c arBon o ffSet S cheme in a lBerta
The province of Alberta has operated a GHG offset system since 2007 that allows
regulated companies to offset their emissions by purchasing verified tonnes from
a range of approved sources including agriculture projects (Haugen-Kozyra and
Goddard 2009). This compliance system for large emitters has provided a rich venue
for learning on behalf of all players—the regulated companies, government, scien-
tists, consultants, aggregator companies, and farmers. Climate change legislation
was amended in 2007 to require regulated companies to reduce their emissions to
a set target below their 2003 to 2005 baseline. If they could not achieve their target
in any year, they could settle their accounts with any of three options: pay into a
research fund at a fixed rate of C$15 per tonne CO 2 e; trade emission performance
credits if they were generated by any company reducing emissions beyond their tar-
get; or purchase verified offsets generated within Alberta using Alberta government-
approved protocols. The latter option triggered interest and activities in developing
protocols across all industrial sectors including agriculture. Offset tonnes trade at