Carbon Farming

Farmers play an important role in helping to achieve a significant lowering of CO₂e emissions in production and have the capability to sequester carbon into their soils – two important levers in a world that is striving to achieve net zero targets. 

What is Carbon Farming?

Carbon farming is an approach to agriculture that involves managing land in a way that sequesters carbon from the atmosphere and stores it in the soil and vegetation. The goal of carbon farming is to mitigate climate change by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere - carbon dioxide (CO₂) and others. 

*CO₂-equivalents (CO₂e) are a unit of measurement used to standardize the climate impact of different greenhouse gases.

How plants pull CO₂ from the atmosphere and store carbon

Plants absorb carbon dioxide, oxygen is released from plants into the atmosphere and carbon-rich soils store water and nutrients.

Climate change mitigation calls for joint efforts: partnerships constitute the cornerstone of our work towards carbon neutrality in the agricultural value chain. 

European Carbon+ Farming Coalition (EIT FOOD) 

BASF has co-founded the European Carbon+ Farming Coalition to drive this important topic which is fully in line with our global commitments to boost sustainable agriculture. The coalition is a farmer-centric initiative conceived to accelerate the farm-level transition towards sustainable agriculture and thus the European Union’s progress toward the carbon neutrality goals of the Green Deal. 

Global Carbon Farming Program (trade news) 

BASF has also launched a program that allows farmers to track and profit from sustainable practices. This includes reducing carbon emissions, underlining our efforts to contribute to fighting climate change. The Global Carbon Farming Program promotes sustainable agricultural practices and fosters the best use of BASF’s holistic portfolio, from seeds, traits, and innovative chemical and biological crop protection products to digital farming and fertilizer management solutions. This will enable farmers to reduce on-farm emissions and sequester more carbon into the soil. In addition, BASF will build the global framework to generate carbon credits from internationally recognized certifiers that will lead to additional revenue streams for farmers from their carbon reduction efforts. 

We adopt a systems approach, offering an ecosystem of solutions and practices to realize CO₂e savings by either improving farm efficiencies (e.g., productivity on existing land) or enabling carbon sequestration. 

Our innovation is the fundamental enabler of Climate Smart Agriculture

We avail of a broad portfolio of solutions that can feature in our best offers to tackle major drivers of on-farm emissions and will introduce more in time. For instance, BASF continually develops innovation to increase yields with the same amounts of inputs: novel chemistry protects the crop against pests and diseases throughout its growth and ripening, and new biological solutions may reduce tractor passes thereby saving fossil fuel emissions. Our herbicide technology can facilitate no-till practices, whereby less carbon is released in the atmosphere, and more is sequestered in the soil. In addition, we offer plant nutrition solutions that also limit fertilizer GHG emissions. Our digital solutions allow for more precise applications of inputs to areas of production where they are most needed; this does not only protect the environment, it also saves inputs and fuel. In addition, our digital tools can track and account for the CO₂e savings and interface with the appropriate certification platforms such that the farmer can be rewarded for their climate smart farming activities. Ultimately, we bring to bear over 100 years of agronomic expertise to fully support the farmer on their transition to Climate Smart farming. 

Take a look at further examples of Carbon Farming

Learn more about our other sustainability commitments