Assessing Soil Carbon Sequestration Through Cover Crops: The Role of Implicit Costs in Alabama Cotton Fields

Carbon farming is emerging as a practical tool for economic resilience in agriculture. By earning carbon credits for practices like cover cropping, farmers can create a reliable secondary income stream that helps buffer against the volatility of commodity markets. This diversification is increasingly critical as farm revenues face growing uncertainty from climate shocks and price fluctuations. Positioning carbon farming as both an environmental and financial strategy offers a pathway to stabilize income while advancing sustainability goals.

In a recent article “Assessing Soil Carbon Sequestration Through Cover Crops: The Role of Implicit Costs in Alabama Cotton Fields” published in the Applied Economic Perspectives & Policy, Sunjae Won and Mykel Taylor from Auburn along with Seong-Hoon Cho from University of Tennessee, look into how hidden land-use costs influence the economic feasibility of soil carbon sequestration through cover cropping in farm fields.