IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rep/wpaper/2003-05.html

Creating Carbon Offsets in Agriculture through No-Till Cultivation: A Meta-Analysis of Costs and Carbon Benefits

Author

Listed:
  • James Manley
  • G. Cornelis van Kooten
  • Klaus Moeltner
  • Dale Johnson

Abstract

Carbon terrestrial sinks are often seen as a low-cost alternative to fuel switching and reduced fossil fuel use for lowering atmospheric CO2. To determine whether this is true for agriculture, one meta-regression analysis (52 studies, 536 observations) examines the costs of switching from conventional tillage to no-till, while another (51 studies, 374 observations) compares carbon accumulation under the two practices. Costs per ton of carbon uptake are determined by combining the two results. The viability of agricultural carbon sinks is found to vary by region and crop, with no-till representing a low-cost option in some regions (costs of less than $10/tC), but a high-cost option in others (costs of $100-$400/tC). A particularly important finding is that no-till cultivation may store no carbon at all if measurements are taken at sufficient depth. In some circumstances no-till cultivation may yield a “triple dividend” of carbon storage, increased returns and reduced soil erosion, but in many others creating carbon offset credits in agricultural soils is not cost effective because reduced tillage practices store little or no carbon.

Suggested Citation

  • James Manley & G. Cornelis van Kooten & Klaus Moeltner & Dale Johnson, 2003. "Creating Carbon Offsets in Agriculture through No-Till Cultivation: A Meta-Analysis of Costs and Carbon Benefits," Working Papers 2003-05, University of Victoria, Department of Economics, Resource Economics and Policy Analysis Research Group.
    • Handle: RePEc:rep:wpaper:2003-05
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://web.uvic.ca/~repa/publications/REPA%20working%20papers/WorkingPaper2003-05.pdf
    File Function: Final version, 2003
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mark Sperow, 2019. "Marginal cost to increase soil organic carbon using no-till on U.S. cropland," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 93-112, January.
    2. Kragt, Marit E. & Pannell, David J. & Robertson, Michael J. & Thamo, Tas, 2012. "Assessing costs of soil carbon sequestration by crop-livestock farmers in Western Australia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 27-37.
    3. Njabulo Lloyd Ntshangase & Brian Muroyiwa & Melusi Sibanda, 2018. "Farmers’ Perceptions and Factors Influencing the Adoption of No-Till Conservation Agriculture by Small-Scale Farmers in Zashuke, KwaZulu-Natal Province," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-16, February.
    4. Fulton, Murray E. & Cule, Monika & Weersink, Alfons, . "Greenhouse Gas Policy and Canadian Agriculture," CAFRI: Current Agriculture, Food and Resource Issues, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society, issue 6, pages 1-11.
    5. Giuseppe Di Vita & Manuela Pilato & Biagio Pecorino & Filippo Brun & Mario D’Amico, 2017. "A Review of the Role of Vegetal Ecosystems in CO 2 Capture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-10, October.
    6. Hediger, Werner, "undated". "The non-permanence of optimal soil carbon sequestration," 83rd Annual Conference, March 30 - April 1, 2009, Dublin, Ireland 51057, Agricultural Economics Society.
    7. G. Cornelis van Kooten, 2004. "Economics of Forest and Agricultural Carbon Sinks," Working Papers 2004-11, University of Victoria, Department of Economics, Resource Economics and Policy Analysis Research Group.
    8. Griffin, Terry Wayne & Zapata, Samuel D., 2015. "Optimal Cotton Insecticide Application Termination Timing: A Meta-Analysis," 2015 Annual Meeting, January 31-February 3, 2015, Atlanta, Georgia 196815, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    9. Gren, Ing-Marie & Zeleke, Abenezer Aklilu, 2016. "Policy design for forest carbon sequestration: A review of the literature," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 128-136.
    10. Kragt, Marit Ellen & Pannell, David J. & Robertson, Michael J. & Thamo, Tas, "undated". "Easy winnings? The economics of carbon sequestration in agricultural soils," Working Papers 109247, University of Western Australia, School of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    11. van Kooten, G. Cornelis & Sohngen, Brent, 2007. "Economics of Forest Ecosystem Carbon Sinks: A Review," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 1(3), pages 237-269, September.
    12. Janssen, Larry & Harer, Justin, "undated". "An Economic Analysis of No-Till Rotations and Effects on Carbon Sequestration and Long Term Sustainability of Agriculture," 2010 Annual Meeting, July 25-27, 2010, Denver, Colorado 61176, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    13. G. Cornelis van Kooten, 2020. "Climate Change and Agriculture," Working Papers 2020-01, University of Victoria, Department of Economics, Resource Economics and Policy Analysis Research Group.
    14. Krishna, Vijesh V. & Veettil, Prakashan C., 2014. "Productivity and efficiency impacts of conservation tillage in northwest Indo-Gangetic Plains," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 126-138.
    15. G. Cornelis van Kooten & Alison Eagle, 2003. "Climate Change and Forest Ecosystem Sinks: Economic Analysis," Working Papers 2003-06, University of Victoria, Department of Economics, Resource Economics and Policy Analysis Research Group.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • Q10 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - General
    • Q50 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rep:wpaper:2003-05. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: G.C. van Kooten (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/devicca.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.