Soil organic carbon measurement has concluded on Million Acre Challenge farms across Southwestern Ontario, marking a major milestone in recognizing and rewarding farmers practicing climate-smart agriculture.

The testing is part of the Million Acre Challenge Program led by the Canadian Alliance for Net-Zero Agri-Food (CANZA), an initiative designed to reduce the financial risk of adopting practices that lower emissions, improve soil health and preserve water quality.

With around 30 farmers enrolled involving nearly 15,000 acres, the program is scaling towards 365,000 enrolled acres over the next five years.

Sampling began in April, carried out by Agricarbon, a firm specializing in direct soil organic carbon measurement for regenerative agriculture and environmental markets.

Agricarbon will return to the same fields in three years to measure the change in soil organic carbon levels over time. The end result will provide concrete evidence of the impacts from sustained regenerative practices.

“With the conclusion of sampling, we’re continuing our progress on moving from intention to impact,” said Ashley Honsberger, Interim Executive Director of CANZA. “This is one more step forward in making climate-smart agriculture measurable, credible and investable.”