Good news for farmers and agriholdings in the Republic of Moldova. Now they can benefit from the AgreenaCarbon soil carbon sequestration certification program, the first soil carbon sequestration certification program in Europe, represented in the Republic of Moldova by Proteh Agro SRL.
Officially, this program was launched in Moldova in 2020. Currently, about 30 farmers and agriholdings from the Republic of Moldova participate in the program, covering over 150,000 hectares.
The collaboration principle is as simple as possible: the farmer enrolls in the program, with the help of the official partner Proteh-Agro SRL; signs a long-term direct contract with the certification company; annually, the amounts of CO2 sequestered are quantified, and valid carbon certificates are issued, which can later be sold on the voluntary carbon certificate market.
At the moment, the estimated price of a certificate is about 25 euros per certificate.
Each certificate is equivalent to one ton of CO2 sequestered. The number of certificates obtained varies depending on agricultural practices, the use of fertilizers and plant protection substances, and phytosanitary use.
Thus, during an agricultural year, about 0.5-3.5 carbon certificates can be obtained per hectare of agricultural land.
The addition of certificates is achieved by transitioning to conservative agriculture, practicing cover crops, using organic fertilizers (instead of chemical ones) or symbiotic microorganisms, and minimizing the amount of pesticides.
The quantification of the sequestered carbon amount is done every agricultural year, considering the entire farm. Even if the farmer does not practice conservative agriculture and does not have cover crops, they can participate in the program if the amount of carbon sequestered on their land where they practice Mini-Till or No-Till exceeds the amount released into the atmosphere from the land where they have conventional tillage.
“Priority for enrollment in the program is given to farmers who want to transition from conventional agriculture to conservative agriculture. When analyzing a farm, the amount of carbon per farm is determined. Accordingly, a farmer can have five fields where they implement the Mini-till system, three dedicated to No-till, and two where they perform tillage. For the tilled fields, they will have a negative balance in the sequestered carbon amounts, which will be subtracted from the total amount accumulated from the ten managed fields. However, we ultimately obtain a positive balance. If they have cover crops or long vegetation period crops on tilled fields, they can indicate a positive balance,” explains Andrei Pavlenco, the manager of Proteh-Agro.
When enrolling in the program, the farmer must have the right to use (land lease contracts) or own the land enrolled in the program for at least 5 years or more.
During the contract’s validity, there is flexibility in land management, allowing some plots to be excluded from the program and others, new ones, to be included.
“Data on the land and some forecasts about the respective plot are included on the platform. To correctly estimate the amount of carbon sequestered on the platform, after harvesting, the actual field data are entered. If farmers want to join the program in the current management year, we must have all the data about the field entered on the platform before the start of the harvest.”
The number of certificates obtained varies between 0.5 and 3.5 certificates and may differ from year to year, even within a farm.
“On average, an agricultural enterprise practicing mixed agriculture (conventional and conservative), without cover crops, administering chemical-origin mineral fertilizers can obtain from 0.5 to 1.5 certificates. If cover crops are grown on these plots, an additional 0,5-1 certificates are added. If chemical fertilizers are replaced with organic ones or priority is given to nitrogen-fixing and phosphorus-solubilizing cover crops, another 0.5 certificates are added. The maximum number of certificates that can be obtained, based on the experience of farmers in neighboring countries, is 3.5 certificates.”
After the end of the agricultural year, when the crops are harvested, the actual data from each field will be entered on the platform.
Next comes the data verification process – physical visits to the site or spectral analysis.
After the entered data is validated, the certificates are issued. Upon obtaining the certificates, the farmer can choose to keep them or sell them to institutional or private organizations.
At all stages of working with the AgreenaCarbon program, the official partner’s team, Proteh Agro SRL, is available for consultation for farmers and agriholdings.