The new farm bill should allow direct-incentive payments by USDA to farmers who use surplus crop and forestry residues for biochar projects rather than burning them and releasing greenhouse gases, said the Carbon Business Council on Tuesday. The council, speaking for carbon management companies, also recommended that Congress create a permitting process for carbon storage on national forest land.
“Recent USDA policy has increased support for climate-smart agriculture and soil carbon sequestration,” said the council in a policy brief. “However there remain untapped opportunities to scale, improve and streamline this support — as well as to enhance the USDA’s ability to sample, measure and model carbon stored in soils that warrants congressional investment and guidance.”
In a series of recommendations that began with keeping control of nearly $20 billion earmarked or climate mitigation through USDA conservation programs, the council said the farm bill should amend the land stewardship programs “so that farmers my qualify for direct-incentive payments…to replace the burning of crop and forestry residues with beneficial use for BCR (biochar removal), bio-oil and other BiCRS (biomass carbon removal and storage) approaches.”
Biochar is a dark, charcoal-like material that is produced by heating plant materials to a high temperature with limited oxygen. Biochar is highly porous, rich in carbon, and can be used as a soil amendment; its water-holding abilities also reduce nutrient runoff.