Farmer preferences for agricultural soil carbon sequestration schemes

Abstract

The sizable technical potential to sequester atmospheric carbon in soils to mitigate climate change will only be realized where and when there is also economic potential. A choice experiment conducted with a random sample of farmers in the State of Indiana, United States, revealed that farmers who have not previously adopted reduced tillage practices on any of their land require a $40 per acre increase in net revenue to switch from conventional tillage to no-till. We estimate that farmers have a $10.57/acre option value of not signing a multi-year sequestration contract, and find that government payments are preferred to carbon markets.