The big change is that farmers must now have an aggregator by May 1 to claim credits with the program
Alberta farmers have to change the way they claim carbon credits for fields they don’t till.
The provincial government announced last week that farmers must now have an aggregator in place by May 1 to claim carbon credits with the Conservation Cropping program. If they don’t have an aggregator by that date, they won’t be reimbursed for 2018, and they won’t be able to save their credits for reimbursement for following years.
While the change might mean extra work, the province is making the changes so it can better forecast how much carbon will be sequestered and how much will be emitted, said Paul Jungnitsch, a carbon offset agrologist with Alberta Agriculture.
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“Because the program is not only aimed at agriculture — it deals with factories and other emitters — the province wants to pre-plan things so Environment and Parks can have a better idea of what’s going to happen,” he said. “It gives them more certainty in their planning.”
Before this change, farmers at the end of the season supplied aggregation companies with records of lands that they didn’t till that year. They would be reimbursed based on the number of acres that weren’t tilled.
Now, they’ll be required to supply records to aggregators that show which fields they don’t plan on tilling. If they change their practice, however, producers will be required to update the aggregator later in the year.
“If they miss May 1, they’re out of luck,” Jungnitsch said. “It’s not a complicated change, but having a hard deadline like that does make a difference if they start thinking of doing this after that date.”
Renn Breitkreuz, chair of the Alberta Canola Producers Commission who farms near Onoway, Alta., said the organization’s board of directors needs to look into this change before commenting.
To claim credits, farmers can go through aggregator companies AgriTrend Aggregation, Carbon Credit Solutions and Farmers Edge.
