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This is because indeed, additional, permanent carbon storage may be at odds with other financial considerations that govern how farmland is managed. Application changes, such as reducing fertilizer inputs and tillage, can reduce crop yields, for example.

“You make the most $20 per acre, and a 20 cents increase in corn will have more of an impact on your economy than loans,” said Jim Bunch, co-founder of Impact Delta. environmental and social effects.

Chris Lehe, a farmer in Indiana, is working with Indigo to generate carbon credits for the no-till applications he uses on some of his 4,800-acre land. Mr. Lehe also experiments on cover crops, but three years later, he’s weighing whether to continue. Planting them costs him $40 per acre, which is more than the application would likely generate in carbon credits.

“You’re going to have a hard time convincing people to switch to cover cropping for the purposes of the carbon market,” said Mr. Lehe. “Our margins are already tight and I don’t think the amount of income we’re getting now is enough to encourage people to change the way they farm for decades.”

Despite all these obstacles, institutional interest in farm-based offsets has remained steady. Committed to reducing its net emissions to zero by 2030, Boston Consulting Group was among the early purchasers. In a statement, the company says it believes land-based offsets are promising and that investment and clear demand signals are needed to improve standards and practices.

Mr Goldberg of Carbon Direct said he has helped customers purchase earth-based offsets, but only from sources where there is a clear path to improvement in standards and protocols.

“Where we need to be for climate and carbon removal, none of the verticals alone will be enough,” he said. “We don’t have enough forest and we don’t have enough ability to change the land. They all need to work and they all have different trade-offs.”