Soil and Water Outcomes
The Soil and Water Outcomes Fund helps farmers implement practices and receive per acre payments. The program is a partnership of AgOutcomes and ReHarvest Partners. They provide financial incentives directly to farmers who transition to on-farm conservation practices that yield positive environmental outcomes like carbon sequestration and water quality improvement.
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| Year Organization Established a Carbon Program | 2020 |
| Affiliated Organization Type | Public-private partnership |
| Affiliated Organizations | |
| Buyers secured | The website mentions the environmental outcomes are being purchased by a combination of public and private customers. Specific customer information will be shared with farmers once the final outcomes payment has been made. |
| Payment Basis to Farmers | $/Acre for practice implementation |
| Payment Amount and Details | Up to $40/acre, with an average payment of $31/acre in 2021. 50% of the annual payment is paid upfront, with the remaining 50% paid upon verification (payment methodology and timing varies). |
| Agricultural System Focus | Cropland |
| Eligible States | DE, IA, IL, OH, PA, NY, WV, and VA |
| Eligible Practices | No-till, cover crops, crop diversity, perennial crop cover, fertilizer management (not exhaustive), land retirement, conversion to pasture. |
| Contract Length | 1 year |
| Contract Details | Producers can re-enroll acres if willing to continue and/or include more practices. |
| Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) | Environmental outcomes are verified using a combination of environmental modeling, in-field monitoring, and remote sensing. Soil sampling is performed on 10% of fields every five years. Remote sensing is done during one peak period per year. |
| Digital Tools for MRV | Producer uses web portal at www.theoutcomesfund.com to create an account, map field boundaries, and enter baseline and future cropping system information. |
| Qualification/eligibility criteria | The field must be Highly Erodible Land (HEL) and wetlands compliant. The producer must enter past and proposed practice information and field boundaries on the enrollment website. |
| Minimum Acreage | None |
| Must land be owned? | Land may be leased, but the applicant needs to have decision-making power over farming practices. |
| Minimum Data Requirements | The Soil and Water Outcomes Fund uses COMET-Farm to calculate the carbon benefits. Based on this information, minimum data for COMET-Farm include: Management practices starting from at least 2000, including cropping sequence and approximate planting and harvest date. Type of grazing system (for pasture or range areas). Type of tillage system. Rate, timing, type, and application method for fertilizer and manure applications. Irrigation method, application rate, and residue management. |
| Years of management practice data needed | The program requires a minimum one year of full crop rotation for baseline and one year for projections. |
| Does the program pay for past practices? | No, would still need to add at least 1 additional practice |
| Additional information | |
| Payment Calculator |
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Program information was validated with a program representative in September 2022.
For additional details, visit the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund’s website