2019 SWCS International Annual Conference July 28-31, 2019 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

1. Carbon Insetting
Framework - NRCS CIG
Soil and Water Conservation Society Annual
Conference
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
July 27, 2019
Shefali Mehta, Executive Director
NRCS CIG

2. Carbon In-Setting Framework: the carbon sequestration
benefits of conservation management practices
 Received Conservation Innovation
Grant (CIG) through United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) &
the Natural Resource Conservation
Service (NRCS) in 2016
 Partnership with Climate Smart
Group, Applied GeoSolutions, Bayer
Crop Science, CropGrower,
AgSolver and SHP
 The goal is to assess conservation
practices across Midwest to
understand insetting opportunities
and provide improved economic
outcomes for land managers &
owners
Soil Health Partnership Webinar, July 2019 2

3. Quick recap of the Soil Health Partnership
SHP partners with farmers as
they try new soil health
management practices with the
goal of improving soil health.
We collect on-farm data over
time that enable farmers to
improve economic and
environmental sustainability
today, and for generations to
come.
 Farmer-led soil health initiative
 Multi-state and multi-practice
 True partnership with 120+
partners in over 15 states and
nationally
 Extensive, long-term, on-farm
trials on active farmlands
 On-farm engagement through
Field team
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How we support our missionOur mission

4. Soil Health Partnership, July 2019 4
What we do
 SHP partners with farmers who enroll in our network to carry out
research on their farms
 Our core Partner sites collect approximately 165 variables over 5
years on randomized, replicated strips. Our newer Associate sites
provide a simpler, split-field trial over 3 years
 Our Field team works closely with the farmers throughout the year
 Our goal is to partner with farmers while they try new practices,
collect data to improve decision-making and reduce the risk of
adopting these new practices
 Our data set provides insight for how various practices impact soil
health over time and over different working farms in the U.S.

5. Partner Sites Associate Sites
Soil Health Partnership, July 2019 5
Our network contains two types of on-farm trials
Control and treatment
randomized across the 8 strips
Control on one-half of the field,
treatment on the other half

6. Soil Health Partnership, July 2019 6
What is carbon insetting?
Many companies are looking for ways to increase the
sustainability of their supply chains and operations
The company can invest in specific efforts that produce
carbon reductions they can acquire, rather than
purchasing offsets in the marketplace
This investment aims to create several benefits, e.g.,
increased efficiency, decreased inputs leading to
reduced cost of production, and higher brand
competitiveness
Ideally, supply-chain companies use shared value,
knowledge and funds to implement sustainability
projects

7. Soil Health Partnership, July 2019 7
The components of the CIG grant
The Framework: provides technical guidelines to support
offsets/insetting projects related to agriculture within a
supply chain
Protocols: - Insetting design documents providing step-
by-step guidance on how to implement this framework
Validation: SHP farmers in selected geographies provide
validation of framework + additional field-scale trials in
2018/19
Quantification methodology: Used DNDC and lookup
tables to quantify greenhouse gas reductions
Verification: OpTis platform for collecting data to support
verifications

8. Soil Health Partnership, July 2019 8
The framework establishes a broadly
useable set of protocols
 Assesses the Insetting Landscape including the current state of
insetting within the industry; forms the basis of information for the CIG
grant and created a structure for the model
 Additionality, Aggregation, Permanence, Verification Discussion
Papers
 Outlines key technical issues associated with accurate carbon
accounting for agricultural projects
 Beta-version of the Carbon Accounting and Insetting Framework is
currently available upon request now (info@climatesmartgroup.com)
 Additional Documents that define framework available at
https://climatesmartgroup.com/initiatives/

9. Soil Health Partnership, July 2019 9
Protocols capture key elements to apply
The Insetting design documents provide a step-by-step guide on
implementing this framework for your own assessment covering several
topics including the relationship of various practices on the land:
 Cover Crops - Improve water infiltration, prevent erosion and prevent
nutrient losses
 Strip or no-till - Disturb the land less to sequester carbon and nutrients
and improve soil structure and biological health
 Nutrient Management - Reduce nutrient loss to air and water, as well
as more efficient plant usage
These relationships are modeled based on SHP’s trials

10. Soil Health Partnership, July 2019 10
Quantification using DNDC model
Conv. Till – No Cover –
Fall N
To
No Till – Rye Cover –
Spring + Sidedress N
Predicted CO2 sequestration from
models
 Look up tables with
model quantify GHG
reductions
 Coefficients for GHG
reductions from tillage,
cover crop, & nutrient
management practices
at county-level scale
across 12 Midwest
states
 Data customizable for
640 different farm
management scenarios

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Validation involves SHP farms
 SHP on farm trials provided a way to validate framework
 SHP grower-cooperator sites span 15 states today but focused on
those who were in our network longer (Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois,
Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Minnesota)
 100+ growers with 200,000 acres in commercial row crops
 Located in sensitive watersheds in Mississippi River Basin as well as
numerous other areas
 Capture broad diversity of soils, farm operations, production practices
to pressure test this framework and model output

12. Validated via
specific areas
of our network
in the Midwest
12
2019 site details:
Partner
Associate

13. Soil Health Partnership, July 2019 13
OpTIS for verification
 The Operational Tillage Information System or OpTIS - A system for wide-
coverage, operational mapping of tillage practices, cover crops, and crop
rotations over time.
 OpTIS produces spatially comprehensive maps of crop residue cover,
cover crops, and crop rotations using information integrated from multiple
earth-observing satellites.
 Large area maps of conservation ag practices produced from 1984
onward, at levels from farm-field to aggregated county / agronomic zones.
 Integrating data from multiple sources of earth observing satellites and
parameterizing in an automated fashion allows us to cover wide areas
while maintaining accuracy and keeping costs reasonable.
Data
Collection
for
Verification

14. Thank you!
LEARN MORE: soilhealthpartnership.org
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