Measuring & Mapping Soil Carbon Sequestration

Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association (MFGA) hosted its Regenerative Ag Conference this week in Brandon.

One of the in-person presenters was Kim Cornish, executive director with the Food Water Wellness Foundation, based in Olds, Alberta.

She commented on the importance of regenerative agriculture.

"I think it's really considerable. The methods that carbon is actually going to stay in the soil, really requires that those fundamental principles of regenerative agriculture, of keeping as much green living root and green growing as much of the year as possible and having diversity in the system and keeping cover on the soil and then even potentially integrating animals. We're not going to see changes that are worth measuring unless we take a regenerative agricultural approach."

Cornish talked about the work they do at Food Water Wellness Foundation.

"We have been working on a method for measuring and mapping soil carbon sequestration. It's an exciting project given that producers that are starting to employ regenerative agricultural practices are seeing shifts in their soil carbon and they're seeing their organic matter increase," she said. "They are able to take atmospheric CO2, which is obviously an issue, and put it in their soil, where its helpful and we're looking at a system that hopefully can also get producers paid for that kind of work that they're doing."

Cornish notes similar work is also being done in Australia and Europe.