Momemtum for sequestration

SOIL carbon sequestrationinagriculturalsystems hasgained tremendous momentum inthe last year and is regarded by the federal government as awin/win for farming communities and the climate.

Encouraged by the Clean Energy Regulatorand through policy and national grants, soil carbon sequestration empowers farmers to leverage carbon as apotent resource to secure thefuture-stableproductivityoftheir land and diversify farmincome by entering the carbon trading market.

What carbonfarming also means is embarking ona25-year landmanagement journey. By starting out on the right footand utilising the most intelligent technology availableto minimise error, calculate operational costs, prevent overspending and predict potential income as accurately as possible, producers can securelong-term maximum profits.

Created to enable precisely this, and accelerate the Australian farming industry’s access to the new income stream that the carbon trading market has to offer,Carbon Count is the world’s first commercially available online soil carbon project management software.

Designedfor agricultural consultants, carbon farming project managers and carbontradingcompanies to service landholders with,Carbon Count is a complete, intuitive project management tool that offers regulatorycompliant samplingdesignand measurementof soil carbon and farmemissions, capable of significantlysimplifying the project management process and maximising the value of derived carbon credits from these projects.

What’s so promising about this new softwareisthat it’s built on the Clean Energy Regulator’s legislative framework for the EmissionsReductionFund (ERF) -with other schemes and method integrations soon available.

This means users simplyhave to follow the steps in the platformto meet all regulatory requirements and reporting obligations necessarytoregister and operatetheir clients’ soil carbon projects in Australia.

The Australian start-up, spearheaded by renowned soil scientistand entrepreneur Philip Mulvey leading ateam of experiencedagronomists and programmers, promises that the Carbon Count platformperforms all the complex mathematical equations necessary and produces all regulator compliant documentation needed to measure, value and certify soil carbon.

Mulvey is acoremember of the Soil Carbon Industry Group and CMI’s Soil Carbon Taskforce and brings morethan 40 years of experience in soil sciences and land repair.

The AustraliansoilcarbonAgtech pioneer has high hopes for the business to vastly accelerate Australia’s participation in theglobal carbon trading market.

“There’s never been an easier way to manage asoil carbon project in Australia, possibly the world,” says Mulvey. “Our goal was to simplify the complicatedprocessand empower farming communities tobenefit from the new income stream the carbon trading market has to offer,whilst also improving the futureproductivity of their landthrough carbonfarming practices. It’s awin for the economy, a win for landholders, awin for natural capital and awin for the climate.”

Powerful tool

At the heart of this intuitive program is the patentedFast Adaptive Algorithm for Soil Testing (FAAST); apredictive outcome algorithm that determines the mostcost-effective samplingplanfor any farminany region.

Basedonthe random stratification methodologyfor soil sampling design, now the mandatorymethodologyfor running soil carbon projects in Australia, theFAASTalgorithm has been developed by ateam at University of Sydney, led by Professor Alexander McBratney and supported by PhillipMulvey, overa period of 13 years.

This powerful tool discovers the sweet spot for users wheresampling costs and variance areoptimised -generatingthe ideal sampling plan with the optimum numberofsamplelocations required to maximise aproject’s returnoninvestment, complete with ageo-referenced digital data package.

Whilst others allocate aflat number of sample points per hectare, FAAST is intelligent. Selecting too many points will result in costly oversampling, selecting too few might result in a high error or variance.

Wherethe FAAST algorithm really shines is in its ability to recommend the optimum number of sample points for agiven strata to ensure users are not penalised when factoring in the variance.

The resultismaximum returns for projects.Whatcurrentlytakessoil carbonproject managersmorethan 150 hours of skilled work to perform, the FAAST algorithm completes within minutes- saving users atremendous amount of time, staffand money.

Strengthened by professionals with domain knowledge in agronomy, farm systems and soilscience,the Carbon Count team helps licensed partners maximise profitsfor their clientseven further by also offering strategic support in developing effective carbon sequestration land management practices.

The platformitself is able to produce several insightful farmmaps including carbon distribution maps and pH variability maps. Since publicly launching lastmonth, CarbonCount is growing fast with several dozen farms currently runningsoil carbonprojects viathe expandingnationaland international partner ecosystem.

Whilst platformaccess is now available for all farmers via licensed agricultural consultants,project managers and carbon traders, large scale farmers may choose to access the platformdirectly by becoming apartner

To find out moreabout platformcapabilities, becomealicensedpartneror chooseapartner that bestsuits your needs, visit www.carboncount.com