The path to sustainable farming starts with the soil. As agriculture faces mounting pressures to balance productivity with environmental needs, one truth becomes clear: you cannot manage soil effectively without measuring and monitoring it. That’s why the Smart Carbon Farming (SCF) is working to make carbon farming a viable and accessible solution for farmers across North-West Europe (NWE).
Breaking Down Barriers
Carbon farming holds great promise as a business model, rewarding farmers for practices that store carbon and regenerate soil. But turning this promise into a practical reality has its barriers. Accurately measuring and verifying stored carbon is critical to making carbon farming work, yet current methods are costly, complex, and often out of reach for most farmers. On top of that, challenges around policy, governance, and access to practical tools create further hurdles.
The SCF project is addressing these barriers head-on. By developing affordable, accurate monitoring technologies, we are working to make it easier for farmers to measure the impact of their practices and unlock new revenue streams. This World Soil Day, we want to join the momentum in raising awareness about the vital role soils play and to empower communities to protect them. We focus on collaboration - between farmers, scientists, and policymakers - to demonstrate the kind of systemic approach needed to safeguard soils for future generations.
Smarter Monitoring Solutions
At the heart of our work is the creation of three advanced monitoring solutions tailored for different soil types: one for peat soils and two for mineral soils. These technologies, being customised by our technology partners Multitel, ILVO, and ConstellR, aim to simplify and lower the cost of measuring, reporting, and verifying (MRV) stored carbon. By testing these solutions on at least 15 pilot farms across five regions, SCF ensures they are not only scientifically accurate but also practical for use in real-world farming conditions.
In collaboration with knowledge partners like Teagasc and ILVO, we are customising these technologies to meet the needs of farmers, considering factors such as soil type, farm size, and regional differences. This tailored approach ensures that the solutions are relevant and scalable across NWE’s diverse agricultural landscape - focusing on some of the most common production systems.
Supporting Farmers on the Ground
Beyond technology, SCF is about empowering farmers. Regional partners, including TGO, Ver de Terre, Boerenbond, Green Restoration Ireland, and ZLTO, work directly with farmers to integrate carbon farming practices into their operations. Through training programmes and other resources, SCF equips farmers with the tools and knowledge to adopt these practices, opening up new revenue streams and helping them meet evolving EU and national regulations.
By the end of the project, SCF will have trained 50 farmers and demonstrated the viability of carbon farming as a revenue model. In doing so, it aims to reinvigorate NWE’s agricultural sector, boosting its competitiveness while promoting sustainable practices that protect the environment and the livelihoods that depend on it.
A Future-Proof Model for Agriculture
Carbon farming represents a crucial step toward making agriculture more sustainable and resilient, but it cannot scale without cost-effective, reliable methods to measure its impact. By bridging the gap between innovative technology and farmers’ needs, we’re helping to lay the groundwork for a future where sustainable farming is not only possible but profitable.
As SCF’s work progresses, it reminds us that agriculture’s transition to sustainability requires collaboration across sectors and borders. With the right tools and support, farmers can become key drivers of environmental change—proving that solutions for healthier soils and a healthier planet can begin right beneath our feet.
Article by: Gerard Don, Caitlin Ball (Bax)