“Many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are directly and indirectly connected to soil. Healthy soils are key for sustainable food production. Carbon capture in the soil contributes to limiting global warming.”
United Nations
2019
“Sustainability is at the heart of what we do. We are committed to provide a strong foundation towards Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives. With monitoring soil health and quantifying carbon sequestration we serve as an ESG enabler."
Christina Leslie
Senior Director Corporate Sustainability
Soil is a powerful tool. It stores more than three times the amount of CO2 compared to the air, forests and other vegetation. Farmers and growers hold the key to this. Tilling the soil less often or sowing green manures are measures they can take to improve the carbon storage. Soil Carbon Check offers insight in how much carbon is stored, in the quality of the soil carbon and how to improve the soil carbon content.
Soil organic carbon is often considered as the most important element of soil health because of its effect on physical (e.g. soil workability, water holding capacity, root penetrability), chemical (e.g. K-, Ca-, Mg-binding capacity) and biological (e.g. soil biodiversity, soil workability, disease suppression, N and S mineralization) components of soil health.
Society demands sustainable produced food products. Here lies an important role for farmers and growers. Sustainable soil management is the starting point and the agri-food industry can support famers and growers in this. Soil Carbon Check makes it possible to prove and claim sustainability in the agri-food chain. Various systems are being developed to reward farmers for their efforts to capture CO2.
Healthy soils and soil carbon storage make significant contribution to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.
A healthy soil and carbon capture have great benefits for your business. Why is this so and what measures can you take as a farmer or grower?
Carbon capture in the soil by farmers and growers has great potential for your sustainability claims. What can the agri-food industry do?
Eurofins underpins its tests and advice on scientific knowledge. We have published several articles on soil heath and carbon capture.
As a guideline, carbon makes up about 50% of the organic matter, however, this percentage varies widely (between 30 and 70%). The actual carbon content depends on factors such as the origin of the organic matter and the type of soil.
Organic matter enters the soil through means such as the supply of crop residues (leaves, stems and roots), animal manure, green manuring and compost. Bacteria, fungi and other soil organisms break it down until indigestible residues remain. The decomposition process occurs in several steps involving all organisms of the soil food web. Decomposition is rapid at first and then slows down. It can take decades for freshly applied material to be fully converted to stable organic matter.
A content of 1% in the upper 30 cm soil represents a quantity of 37.5 tons captured CO2, so to increase the carbon content in the soil by 1%, 37.5 tons of effective organic matter must be supplied. Suppose the average humification coefficient is 0.7, then over 53.5 tons of fresh organic matter must be supplied! Increasing the organic matter content is therefore done in small steps. Here are some measures you can take:
Organic matter retains moisture. Plots with higher organic matter content are therefore less susceptible to drought and can more effectively ‘capture’ water from rainfall.
It is food for soil organisms, therefore not only important for mineralization, but also for the resilience of the soil. Finally, organic matter improves the workability of the soil.
Use the link or QR-code on your report to open the Carbon Calculator. The Carbon Calculator will then start with your latest personal soil carbon data. Use this data to optimize your choice of crop or which manure/green manure/compost to apply on your fields.
The Carbon Calculator also shows the amount of carbon credits you have built up.
