Farmers warned off soil carbon markets

FARMERS should be extremely cautious about entering any market involving soil carbon, says a 2009 Nuffield scholar: the liabilities could easily outweigh any financial advantage. David Drage, a Warracknabeal, Vic, mixed farmer, last year won a Nuffield Scholarship to head overseas "hopefully with an open mind" to pursue the question of whether soil carbon and carbon markets in general represent a threat or an opportunity for Australian agriculture.

He returned from the two-part scholarship trip firmly believing the threats currently outweigh the opportunities. In his meetings with farm lobby groups and non-government organisations (NGOs) in the United Kingdom, Europe and the Americas, Mr Drage was repeatedly told that the cost and difficulty of accounting for soil carbon, and issues of permanency, mean that agriculture doesn't currently have a place in carbon accounting systems.

sl.farmonline.com.au