Farmer perceptions of the opportunities and constraints to producing carbon offsets from Australian dryland grain cropping farms

The Australian Government is attempting to use a market-based mechanism to involve agriculture in activities that reduce emissions and sequester carbon. The initiative, known as the Carbon Farming Initiative, represents a significant investment as part of the government’s climate change and land-use policies. To examine the potential opportunities and constraints faced by Australia’s grain farms to engage in these carbon farming activities, we interviewed 31 grain farmers and five industry professionals. Our analysis suggests that a lack of project methodology development and the current project approval processes pose significant constraints to engagement. A particular concern for farmers is the extent of the permanence obligation requiring long-term maintenance of the carbon possibly more than 100 years and the additionality requirement regarding the common practice test that if too many others are doing the practice it will not get the required for project approval. Given the requirements of the processes and the associated transaction costs, producing offsets from dryland grain cropping operations in Australia is currently not a profitable endeavour for farmers and therefore fails to act as an incentive to participation.