“By avoiding tillage, you’re minimizing the amount of soil
that can be eroded. The soil includes the organic matter which
holds the carbon. So some of your larger particulates in the
soil will stay there and not blow or wash away,” said Rosaasen.
“The move to minimum tillage and zero tillage has
greatly increased the amount of organic soil carbon that’s
sequestered.”
In fact, a 2001 AAFC soil inventory, which Canada supplied
to the United Nations International Panel for Climate
Change, claimed soils in Western Canada have sequestered
more carbon in recent decades than in the century before.
Rosaasen said the second big change involves advances
in technology which mitigate the use of carbon and further
contribute to the fight against climate change.
The first was the introduction of glyphosate (Roundup),
allowing farmers to control emerging weeds pre-season
through burn-off instead of tilling before seeding. This
meant fewer passes with equipment, saving money and disturbing
KAP Long Distance
and Home Phone Program
So far, Alberta is the only province in Canada with a carbon
offset system to include farmers. But Rosaasen believes
it could become a model for a national system.
“Alberta is the knowledge hub for carbon offsets and
carbon markets,” he said in an interview with Manitoba
Farmers’ Voice. “Of all the models out there that I’ve studied,
it’s by far one of the most progressive.”
As for farmers sequestering carbon and reducing greenhouse
gas emissions, that’s already happening. Rosaasen
said two major changes in farming practices and technology
since the 1980s are driving it, allowing farmers to grow higher
yielding crops with fewer inputs on fewer acres.
The first was a change in soil cultivation. That included
a movement away from summer fallow to annual cropping.
Time was when many Prairie farmers followed a one-intwo
year practice – cropping a field one year and fallowing
it the next. It may have been one of the few ways to control
weeds in those days, but tilling fields bare had two damaging
effects: encouraging soil erosion and releasing carbon
into the atmosphere.
Since then, Prairie agriculture has seen a “huge drop” in
summer fallow acres as farmers gradually adopted annual
cropping, said Rosaasen.
“We have greatly reduced the number of summer fallow
acres across all of Western Canada. That’s the first change
and probably the largest one. And it was done in the absence
of regulation and without a carbon tax.”
Along with a reduction in summer fallow came the
adoption of conservation tillage, either minimum tillage or
zero till.
Great rates mean you stay easily connected! West Can
provides preferred rates to KAP members.
Long Distance:
• 4.5¢/min (CDN/U.S.) - Landline
• Discounted International Rates
• 8.0¢/min (CDN/U.S.) - any cell provider
Home Phone:
• Starting at $14.95/month
• Highspeed Internet required
FOR PROGRAM DETAILS Call
1-866-527-0123 ext. 4
Email: info@westcangroup.ca
Services provided by:
Great rates mean you stay easily connected!
West Can Group provides preferred rates to
KAP members.
Long Distance:
• 4.5¢/min (Canada/U.S.) - Landline
• Discounted International Rates
• 8.0¢/min (Canada/U.S.) - Any cell provider
Home Phone:
• Starting at $14.95/month
• Highspeed Internet required
less soil.
Other new technologies included GPS tractor guidance
and auto-steer to keep farm vehicles on line and avoid overlap
with equipment. Besides less seedbed disturbance, these
technologies prevent double fertilizing, thus lowering the
loss of applied fertilizer to the atmosphere as greenhouse gas.
The only problem is the capital outlay, which can run well
over $1 million for a 50-foot seeder with sectional control.
Here is a prime example of how carbon credits for growers
would not only encourage on-farm use of such technologies
but also promote their development, said Rosaasen, who
is Alberta Pulse Growers’ policy and program specialist and
CARBON PRICING
32 § Manitoba Farmers’ Voice § Spring 2019
link
