Soil and Water Outcomes Fund Produces 10x-Plus Increase in Environmental Outcomes in 2021

This post first appeared on the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund website.

The Soil and Water Outcomes Fund recently announced that carbon sequestration and nutrient reduction outcomes produced by participating farms in Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina in 2021 are projected to be more than 10 times greater than the totals from the prior year. Enrollment is completed for 2021 across the six states, with more than 120,000 acres of cropland contracted in the program by farmers adding new conservation practices such as cover crops and reduced tillage.

The preliminary environmental outcomes resulting from practices implemented by Soil and Water Outcomes Fund farmers are:

This CO2e sequestered by farms in the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund is equivalent to removing 24,250 cars from the road for one year.

Enrolled farmers received an average of $33.60 per acre, for a total of more than $4 million in payments to participating farmers.

The Soil and Water Outcomes Fund is widely regarded as the most farmer-friendly ecosystems services offering on the market today because of its ease of enrollment, simple contracting, local support from conservation agronomists, and industry-leading farmer payments.

“The Soil and Water Outcomes Fund provides a great incentive to create and expand conservation practices on my farm; helping protect our land for this generation and the ones to follow,” said Ryan Vavroch, a farmer from Iowa enrolled in the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund.

Increasingly, companies and communities are realizing the benefits of a pay for outcomes approach versus the alternative method of paying for practices.

“We’re always looking for the best way to partner with farmers and are pleased to work with the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund to partner with growers in our supply chain to enhance regenerative agriculture outcomes in a way that keeps farms strong today and for the future,” said Margaret Henry, director of sustainable agriculture at PepsiCo. “And we are looking at expanding our partnership into new geographies in the year ahead.”

The Soil and Water Outcomes Fund is a partnership of AgOutcomes, a subsidiary of the Iowa Soybean Association, and ReHarvest Partners, a subsidiary of Quantified Ventures. The Outcomes Fund uses the leading biophysical models and scientifically rigorous approaches to quantify carbon sequestration and water outcomes while providing technical assistance to aid growers on their journey to increase profitability through sustainability. AgOutcomes leads the agronomic and farmer relations elements of the operation, and ReHarvest Partners manages the financial and contracting aspects of the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund.