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Steps to reduce farming’s carbon footprint may also boost production

Experts say farming practices that lead to carbon neutral food production can also contribute to higher production.  Kansas State University Professor Chuck Rice tells Brownfield that farmers’ easiest, off-the-shelf technology to reduce agriculture’s carbon footprint is no-till farming.

dscn7954“Many soils, not all, will respond to less disturbance, less tillage, and increase the soil carbon content,” said Rice, during a Brownfield Ag News interview following his keynote presentation at a workshop in St. Louis about charting the course for climate research in agriculture.  “But there’s a benefit there; as you increase carbon content, which is really organic matter, you make that soil more productive.”

Farming practices that include planting cover crops sequester carbon in the soil, which, is part of organic matter, said Nick Goeser, director of the Soil Health Partnership.

dscn7957“We create better water holding capacity in that soil, better ability to cycle nutrients in that soil,” said Goeser, who also spoke during the event, “and those are agronomic benefits directly that are paid to that farmer over the short term.”

There are technologies on the livestock side as well, said Bill Hohenstein, a speaker at the workshop representing the USDA.

dscn7959“We can provide incentives to change the way manure is managed and change the diets of animals, and increase production,” said Hohenstein, following his talk, “at the same time reduce waste and reduce emissions.”

The organizers, the ILSI Research Foundation, held the event with the goal of prioritizing new research targets to achieve the USDA’s building blocks for climate smart agriculture, integrate field research networks, and support better understanding of soil carbon sequestration.

AUDIO: Dr. Charles Rice (5 min. MP3)

AUDIO: Nick Goeser (5 min. MP3)

AUDIO: Dr. William Hohenstein (3 min. MP3)

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