Proposed Policies Would Reward Farmers for Climate-Smart Biofuel Crop Practices

A team of agricultural economists, environmental scientists and policy experts envisions a path toward a carbon-neutral agricultural future by expanding the reach of policies designed to promote low-carbon biofuels for transportation and aviation.

In a paper in the journal Science, the researchers propose policies that would reward farmers for adopting "climate-smart" practices when growing biofuel crops and remove the hurdles that currently thwart such efforts.

Climate-smart practices include techniques that build soil carbon, like cover-cropping, not tilling fields after harvest and adding biochar or finely ground silicate rock to soils; and those that reduce the carbon footprint of crop production, like optimizing the timing of fertilizer application, electrifying farm vehicles and improving crop genetics.