Fiona Conroy says,”I’d rather die than sell carbon credits, I’m very, very wary.” Fiona Conroy. Angus Beef and Merino Wool famer manage mixed farming enterprises for the last 30 years. She and her husband agronomist Cam Nicholson live in Victoria. Despite having double stock values, she is very cautious of carbon credits.Conroy claims to be carbon-neutral.
During Agriculture conference in Canberra, she said, ‘’we need those credits within our business.’’ She believes carbon accounting will be part of future farming. However, what is needed for that is a work in progress and it is full of risk. She believes farmers need to learn about emission profiles. They must learn to use science for storing carbon in the soil.
Farmers Do not have Carbon Literacy
Conroy said, most of the farmers have knowledge about the soil characteristics, yield and stock levels but they don’t have carbon litracy. The couple holds vast science-based records on soil, pasture, productivity, and livestock performance. They prioritize carbon and biodiversity and have dedicated 10% of their farm to trees.
She says, ‘’We’ve got this carbon bank, but we’ve got a much nicer environment of people to work in as well.”
On the other hand, an increase in stock level increases emissions. Almost 97 percent of the emissions come from livestock. Almost 88 percent of those emissions are methane. However, Ms Conroy says,”There’s not much we can do about it, because we want to run lots of livestock,”
Farmers with an additional source of income
Consultant Elizabeth Rose, from EY, states that the national safeguard mechanism provides farmers with an additional source of income by using technology and carbon offsets to reduce emissions.
“With an estimated carbon price around $75, there’s a fairly good margin to potentially be made through these types of activities,” she says
The agricultural sector possesses knowledge that can be utilized to address climate change and the loss of biodiversity.”Climate change is obviously a high-stakes game for our farmers, being the businesspeople who are most impacted by the physical impacts of climate change,” Ms Rose says.