Morocco’s state-owned OCP Group, has launched their first carbon farming project in Brazil with a goal of enhancing food security while also promoting global net zero emissions.
Carbon Farming is a whole farm approach to optimizing carbon capture on working landscapes by implementing practices that are known to improve the rate at which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and stored in plant material and/or soil organic matter. Carbon Farming is a framework for engaging with the agroecosystem processes that drive system change. Carbon farming explicitly recognizes that it is solar energy that drives farm ecosystem dynamics and that carbon is the carrier of that energy within the farm system.
Sustainable farming
The project seeks to improve regenerative, sustainable farming and carbon sequestration in soil. Verra-VCS standard will certify and monitor the project using a cutting-edge soil spectroscopy technology deployed to analyze the chemical and physical composition of soil.
The farming project being implemented by a collaboration of OCP Group, Bioline by InVivo, Agrorobótica and a selected famer across Matto Grosso agricultural region which produces the majority of Brazil’s livestock and grains.
The tailored solutions will enable a farmer to adopt the regenerative practices needed for sustainable agriculture. These practices enhance the soil’s capacity to sequester carbon and improve soil health and fertility, which in turn reduces carbon emissions, supports food security and helps to increase returns for farmers.
The carbon credits generated from the project provide a valuable source of income for the farmer and OCP will put the carbon credits that it receives from this partnership towards its own objectives of achieving Net Zero carbon emissions by 2040.
“OCP Group promotes regenerative agriculture practices in Brazil, Africa and many areas around the world by supporting farmers through training, deploying the 4R approach and encouraging innovation. We are excited to contribute to this important step towards scaling up the carbon farming initiative. This at-scale project will create new revenue for our farmers by rewarding them for their efforts in contributing to the global climate action. The project is a concrete way to unlock the potential of agriculture as a natural carbon sink that will help achieving the Paris Agreement objectives,” said Hanane Mourchid, Chief Sustainability Officer of OCP Group.
Laurent Martel, Bioline by InVivo CEO added: “This project illustrates Bioline by InVivo’s commitment to accelerate agricultural solutions for the environment, by diversifying farmers’ incomes. Agriculture can regenerate the natural capital, agriculture is a solution to the climate crisis, and farmers must be paid for their regenerating actions”.
