In September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced new Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) funding to help agricultural producers connect with environmental markets, reduce emissions, and become more resilient to climate change.
Delta Institute will be partnering on three of the selected conservation innovation projects, described below:
- Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) was awarded funding to create the first large-scale pilot project generating greenhouse gas credits from nutrient management practices on corn and almond farms. Delta will be working with EDF and their national supply chain initiative to quantify and value nitrogen reductions by participating farmers.
- Vital Farmland LP was awarded funding to develop tools and metrics to evaluate ecosystem services generated on sustainably farmed agricultural lands, in service of catalyzing impact investments in sustainable agriculture. Delta will be helping to create environmental metrics that can be used by investors.
- Electric Power Research Institute was awarded funding to develop and execute, for the first time, trades of “stacked” ecosystem services for water quality and greenhouse gas emissions reduction credits. Delta will be participating in the implementation team for the Ohio River Basin Water Quality Trading program.
These collaborations will leverage Delta’s deep technical expertise in connecting agricultural producers to environmental markets and experience gained through our work connecting small landowners to carbon markets, developing and launching the Delta Nitrogen Credit Program, and piloting the pay-for-performance approach to conservation agriculture. This work supports Delta’s strategic objective to catalyze ecosystem stewardship by promoting practices that enhance ecosystem health and foster resilience.
Stay tuned for more information about these projects when they get started!