A new digital carbon farming partnership launches across 40,000 hectares of Brazil’s Cerrado region.
Digital carbon farming practices are transforming traditional agriculture into a climate solution through a new carbon credit farming program spanning 40,000 hectares in Brazil’s Cerrado region. The MyEasyCarbon initiative demonstrates how agricultural carbon sequestration monitoring can revolutionize farming while maintaining productivity.
Digital carbon farming, a breakthrough in sustainable agriculture practices, focuses on capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide in soil and vegetation. Through the systematic implementation of regenerative farming technology, agricultural operations can transition from carbon sources to carbon sinks, offering practical solutions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions while ensuring food security.
The Cerrado, Brazil’s vast tropical savanna covering approximately 2 million square kilometers, is a crucial testing ground for agricultural carbon sequestration monitoring. Traditionally functioning as a carbon sink and water regulator for South America’s major river basins, this vital biome has seen more than half its original vegetation converted to farmland and pastures. This transformation presents a unique opportunity for implementing carbon farming methods to restore degraded landscapes while maintaining agricultural productivity.
The digital carbon farming certification process builds on proven European success. Originally developed for France’s Low Carbon Label agriculture program in 2019, the MyEasyCarbon platform became the first Bureau Veritas-certified solution in 2022. By mid-2024, it achieved verified reductions across 300 French farms, validating both the technology and methodology before expanding to Brazilian agricultural carbon credits.
The French digital carbon farming program established rigorous standards for measuring and verifying carbon reductions in crop production, creating a blueprint for agricultural sustainability worldwide. Its success demonstrated how digital monitoring technology could accurately track and verify carbon sequestration across diverse agricultural operations, paving the way for the global expansion of carbon credit farming programs.
Agricultural digital carbon monitoring systems track comprehensive metrics across multiple categories to ensure accurate carbon credit verification. For soil carbon sequestration rates, the systems measure organic carbon content at various depths, bulk density and soil composition changes over time. These measurements occur at designated sampling points across agricultural plots, with data collected seasonally to account for natural variations.
The digital carbon farming platform verifies the implementation of regenerative farming technology through a combination of satellite imagery, sensor data, and on-site documentation. This includes tracking cover crop cycles, tillage practices, crop rotations, and residue management. Each practice is assigned specific carbon sequestration values based on peer-reviewed research and local conditions.
Biodiversity measurements encompass both above-ground and soil biodiversity indicators. The system tracks species diversity in field margins, beneficial insect populations, and soil microorganism activity. Water retention improvements are monitored through soil moisture sensors, infiltration rate tests, and aggregate stability measurements.
The system’s ability to meet both French Low Carbon Label requirements and VERRA VM0042 standards showcases how agricultural carbon credit requirements can be standardized across different regions and regulatory frameworks. This standardization includes aligned measurement methodologies, comparable verification processes, and consistent data quality standards, making carbon credits more tradeable across international markets.
The agricultural carbon credit market provides essential financial motivation for farmers transitioning to regenerative agriculture technology. Carbon credit verification enables farmers to monetize their environmental improvements, helping offset initial investments in sustainable farming practices. This market mechanism addresses one of the primary barriers to agricultural transformation: the economic challenge of transitioning to new farming methods.
Beyond emissions reduction, carbon farming benefits include enhanced soil fertility and structure through improved organic matter content, significantly improved biodiversity at both soil and ecosystem levels, increased drought resilience through better water retention, reduced soil erosion, long-term productivity gains through enhanced soil health, decreased input costs through natural system optimization, and improved farm resilience to climate extremes.
The Brazilian agricultural carbon credit program represents a significant scaling of carbon farming methods. By implementing comprehensive farm carbon monitoring systems across 40,000 hectares, this initiative creates a framework for expanding carbon credit farming programs globally while maintaining food production capacity. The project specifically targets the restoration of degraded pastures, demonstrating how agricultural productivity can coexist with environmental preservation.
Success in the Cerrado demonstrates how digital carbon farming/sequestration monitoring can help transform farming from an emissions source to a climate solution. As digital carbon farm monitoring advances, improved measurement precision will enable broader participation in agricultural carbon markets worldwide. The scalable framework being established could serve as a model for future carbon farming projects, helping agriculture meet the dual challenges of increasing food production and reducing environmental impact.
