Vesco Agricultural Technologies has developed superior No-Till farming equipment that produces higher yields, combats soil erosion, reduces seed, fertilizer and fuel costs and qualifies for carbon-offset credits, tradable on the growing number of carbon credit markets emerging worldwide as part of the fight against Global Warming.

How can No Till farming play a role in fighting Green House Gas Emissions?

Agricultural soils can sequester more than 10 percent of man-made carbon emissions.   At the same time, agriculture is a contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  Worldwide, agriculture as an industry is responsible for approximately 17 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.

Carbon sequestration in soil has been recognized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the European Commission as one of the measures through which greenhouse gas emissions can be mitigated.
Agriculture has a dramatic capacity to sequester greenhouse gas emissions and worldwide, farmers have
the opportunity to offset their own emissions and those of other industries.

Soils and plants contain 2.7 times more carbon than the atmosphere.  Outside the oceans they represent the earth’s largest store of biological carbon.  Using soils and plants in ways that release carbon intensifies climate change and is one of the greatest sources of climate-disrupting greenhouse gases after fossil-fuel burning. 

Today the plow is under attack.  Increasingly farmers are turning to conservation agriculture, a new generation of equipment and methods that avoids the massive soil disturbance caused by the plow.  According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations,

“agricultural soils are among the planet’s largest reservoirs of carbon and hold potential for expanded carbon sequestration, and thus provide a prospective way of mitigating the increasing atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide.  Soils can sequester around 20 pentagrams of carbon in 25 years, more than 10 percent of the anthropogenic (man-made) emissions.”

What is No-Till Farming?

Continuous conservation tillage, including reduced till and no-till practices, moves carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the soil.  Plants take in carbon dioxide and use it to build roots, stalks, grain and other parts.  Conservation tillage practices store carbon by preventing the disruption of organic matter in the soil, allowing the organic matter to accumulate in the ground rather than be released as carbon dioxide, as occurs through traditional tilling practices that are still widely used today.  Additionally, conservation tillage helps improve soil and water quality, reduces on-farm fuel burn and emissions, and also enhances the ability of food producers to withstand climate extremes.   

Management practices that allow soils to move carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to agricultural soils are explicitly cited as an important greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation option in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC, and in the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  Activities that increase on-farm soil carbon are explicitly included as credited activities in U.S. proposals to legislate a GHG cap-and-trade program, for both early action and inclusion going forward.  In Canada, agricultural soil carbon crediting is also included in existing GHG reduction initiatives.

No-till farming practices can sequester as much as half a ton of carbon per acre a year and less tillage also means fewer passes by tilling equipment, and less fuel.   The Vesco technology is one-pass only equipment.  As only 18 percent of U.S. cropland and 30 percent of Canadian cropland is currently farmed using no-till practices, there is a large potential for increased carbon sequestration.

Unlike existing no-till farming equipment which can open the earth up to 50 percent, the Vesco no-till technology leaves 90 percent of the soil surface undisturbed.  The Company believes the Vesco propriety no-till farming technology can significantly enhance carbon sequestration in soil, meeting or exceeding the generally accepted half a ton per acre per year, while improving yields, and reducing seed, fertilizer and fuel usage.

Conventional tillage practices deplete soil carbon, which degrades soil quality, reduces productivity, and results in the need for more fertilization, irrigation, and pesticides. No-till farming reverses these effects by slowing soil erosion and pollution runoff, benefiting aquatic ecosystems, improving agronomic productivity, and achieving food security.  Extensive research confirms that in addition to increasing storage of carbon in the soil, no-till agriculture produces crop yields similar to or better than those obtained with conventional tillage practices.

For more information about this progressive company please visit their website at: www.vescocanada.com