Arable, a leading provider of crop intelligence, has partnered with Shell International Exploration and Production, supported by HabiTerre and Quanterra Systems, to launch an innovative project aimed at advancing sustainable farming practices and carbon measurement in agriculture. This joint initiative will introduce a high-trust, low-cost carbon measurement, and verification system, starting in Brazil, to utilize agriculture as a significant source of carbon sequestration to combat climate change.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has emphasized the need to remove up to 10 gigatons of CO2 annually from the atmosphere by 2050 to meet global emissions reduction targets. Sustainable farming practices have the potential to capture up to half of this amount through soil carbon storage. However, the agriculture sector has yet to fully utilize this potential due to the complexity and cost associated with accurately estimating changes in soil carbon and on-farm emissions. The current measurement protocols require soil tests and infrastructure that involve significant investment, making it challenging for farmers to participate and limiting the scalability of the market.
The joint project aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of combining ground-truth crop intelligence with remote-sensed data and scientific modeling to create an accurate and scalable carbon measurement and verification system. It leverages the latest advancements in digital agriculture technology, including Arable’s innovative device called the Arable Mark. This device provides in-field sensing and communication capabilities, measuring weather, plant, soil, and irrigation data in a single system. The data collected from the Arable Mark will be combined with Quanterra’s carbon monitoring solution and HabiTerre’s carbon models to deliver reliable estimation and verification at a fraction of the cost of existing methods.
Shell, committed to becoming a net-zero energy business by 2050, recognizes the potential of agriculture and the role of new technologies in advancing the industry. The collaboration with Arable allows Shell to explore and support innovative solutions that can contribute to its sustainability goals.
Arable’s ability to collect highly accurate and comprehensive data is crucial for developing trusted carbon credits. In addition to the sensed data, the integrated camera on the Arable Mark can provide an extra layer of verification through high-resolution images of fields, confirming sustainable practices such as planting, tilling, use of cover crops, and harvesting.
The initial phase of the project will take place in Brazil, chosen for its status as one of the world’s largest agricultural regions with significant potential for reducing net carbon emissions. The project will deploy Arable Mark devices and Quanterra’s flux towers in 20 locations across various crop types. Brazil’s lack of access to information, such as weather data, satellite imagery, and soil data, has hindered the production of high-quality carbon estimates and credits. By addressing these challenges, the project aims to unlock the untapped opportunities for reducing carbon emissions from agriculture in Brazil.
If successful, this innovative system could be implemented in major agricultural regions worldwide, offering a farmer-friendly approach to unlocking the potential of the agriculture-based carbon market. It would provide financial incentives for sustainable practices to farmers while enabling businesses to offset emissions at scale through the creation of high-quality carbon credits. Arable’s customers would benefit from a unified system that facilitates carbon credit qualification, improves farming decisions, and enhances overall productivity, profitability, and sustainability.
HabiTerre recognizes its potential to advance sustainability globally. By combining Arable’s comprehensive data with their environmental and productivity modeling, HabiTerre aims to contribute to the development of a robust quantification infrastructure necessary for environmental markets, thereby unlocking greater opportunities for agriculture as a leading climate change solution.
Arable, as the leader in crop intelligence, is dedicated to promoting digital agriculture worldwide. Their IoT-based solution integrates in-field weather, forecast, plant, soil, and irrigation data with advanced modeling and machine learning to provide real-time, actionable insights into the entire crop system. Operating in over 30 countries, Arable helps agribusinesses, farming operations, and food and beverage companies optimize water use, crop protection, fertilization, fieldwork, research trials, food supply chains, and sustainability initiatives.
The joint initiative between Arable, Shell, HabiTerre, and Quanterra represents an important step forward in sustainable agriculture and carbon measurement. By leveraging cutting-edge technology and scientific rigor, this project has the potential to revolutionize the way carbon is monitored, reported, and verified in the agricultural industry. With a focus on scalability and affordability, the initiative aims to unlock the vast potential of agriculture as a leading solution to mitigate climate change while providing benefits to farmers and businesses alike.
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