Pitch
While new equipment is much more efficient than it was 20-30 years ago, making multiple passes through a field creates more GHGs
Description
Summary
Creating incentives for farmers to use no-till or less pass systems in their fields
What actions do you propose?
One way to implement incentive based would be to pass something through the government
Another way would be to have an organization going around that promotes the ideas i have suggested to help raise awareness for these issues.
Who will take these actions?
Farmers, or farming businesses, will be the ones that would have to accept the incentives
Where will these actions be taken?
These actions could be used all around the world. Possibly you could use this outside of the row crop farming community as well. The USA and South America would be potentially big advocates for this program if one was implemented.
How much will emissions be reduced or sequestered vs. business as usual levels?
When farming row crop there are always going to be 2 passes made through a field no matter what. (Planting and Harvesting)
Many Farmers still use conventional tillage practices today to create an ideal seedbed before planting, and also post harvest tillage to help with the organic matter decomposing processs.
Growing and expanding GMO could potentially eliminate weed/pest control which would eliminate 1-3 passes through a field per year as the crop would be less, if not completely, unaffected by weeds and pests.
Cutting farming emissions in half may seem far fetched but I think it could be possible. At least 1/3 cut of passes
could be a pretty reasonable objective.
What are other key benefits?
Less Fuel Usage
Less time in fields for farmers
Better growing/producing crops with the use of GMOs
The use of no-till farming practices also helps keep soil in tact and prevents erosion!
What are the proposal’s costs?
This proposal should cost the farmer less in input costs but seed rates would more than likely continue to rise as seed companies continue to make better seed quality.
Unless there was a bill passed where farmers were given a dollar based incentive, it would not cost anyone any more money.
Time line
I think in 5-15 this could be accomplished. We have made great strides in no till situations across the US anyways, where farmers are grasping the concept and it seems to be working pretty well thus far.