Isramart : Farmers warned not to bank on carbon scheme

Isramart news:
AGRICULTURE may be excluded from the Federal Government's proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, but farmers should still be on the front foot looking for alternatives, says Carbon Advantage executive director Matthew Reddy.

Speaking at an Upper South East and Lower SE Beef Group carbon forum at Naracoorte last Friday, he said farmers would be faced with higher fuel and fertiliser input costs. As such, they should looking to generate their own alternative power, such as wind turbines, or participate directly in the carbon-offset scheme using resources from their farms.

"Either way, when the carbon trading scheme covers the power and fuel sectors input costs for ag will rise, and consumers and large retailers will also be looking for evidence of more sustainable production including carbon," he said.

He said there would be opportunities for farmers to participate in projects with soil carbon sequestration, methane management in livestock and the use of biochars and biofuels.

Agroforestry also had the potential to provide returns of $100 a tonne to $200 per hectare per year, with the average area on a per hectare basis capturing between 5-10t carbon/ha/year.

Carbon units were trading for about $25-$30/t in the European Union compliance market, but Australian farmers were able to receive about $20/t gross under the voluntary Landcare Carbon Smart Program.

In July, the National Carbon Offset Standard would replace the Greenhouse Friendly Program, and this was the best place for individual farmers and groups of farmers to participate in an accredited scheme.

He encouraged producers in the South East or other regions to use their existing grower and production groups to trade their carbon credits as a block.

"You really want to be looking for other options joining groups of farmers in bigger schemes which have national significance to spread costs and aggregate credits so you can get a higher price," he said.

Across Australia, there had already been successful examples of groups participating in the GFP, including Auscarbon in Western Australia, the Northern United Forestry Group, and the Basco Farming Group.