A team of agricultural economists, environmental scientists and policy experts envisions a path toward a carbon-neutral agricultural future by expanding the reach of policies designed to promote low-carbon biofuels for transportation and aviation.
A team of agricultural economists, environmental scientists and policy experts envisions a path toward a carbon-neutral agricultural future by expanding the reach of policies designed to promote low-carbon biofuels for transportation and aviation. In a new paper in the journal Science, the researchers propose policies that would reward farmers for adopting “climate-smart” practices when growing biofuel crops and remove the hurdles that currently thwart such efforts.
Climate-smart practices include techniques that build soil carbon, like cover-cropping, not tilling fields after harvest and adding biochar or finely ground silicate rock to soils; and those that reduce the carbon footprint of crop production, like optimizing the timing of fertilizer application, electrifying farm vehicles and improving crop genetics.
Studies show that, if adopted globally, “climate-smart” farming practices could reduce carbon emissions by 4-8 billion tonnes per year, the researchers wrote. To put that in perspective, in 2024, global carbon dioxide emissions reached an all-time high of about 40 billion tonnes.
Read More at: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Agricultural and consumer economics professor Madhu Khanna and her colleagues propose policies that would reward farmers for adopting “climate-smart” practices when growing biofuel crops. (Photo Credit: Fred Zwicky)
