Delta Institute is creating regional consensus around how to factor Soil Health into the standard farmland appraisal process, by engaging hundreds of stakeholders throughout Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Why Our Work is Needed Today
Farmers and working lands’ owners may build soil health and improve water quality by adopting Soil Health Management Systems (SHMS), such as cover crops and no-till. However, prior stages of work by Delta Institute have shown that despite evidence that suggests improved soil health may create more profitable farming operations, there must be market and financial drivers that promote a marketplace for improved soil health to thus drive both farmer adoption of soil health-focused conservation efforts as well as recognition by the agricultural real estate community that improved soil health has economic value attached to it.
Based on our years of relevant work experience, Delta has determined that addressing and overcoming this “missing market” for soil health within the land valuation and appraisal process is essential to market-driven conservation adoption by farmers throughout the Midwest to improve the quality and wellbeing of our soil and water.
To cultivate this missing market, Delta Institute and our partners will convene key stakeholders across the farmer/landowner, appraiser, and lender sectors throughout the Midwest to identify, develop, and implement market drivers that leverage soil health valuation in farmland appraisals to increase adoption of soil health practices.
Brief Overview of What We’re Doing
Consensus building, as a broad definition used by Delta Institute within our projects, is accomplished by achieving a reasonable degree of authentic buy-in from notable actors within the space that we are operating within—that then allow for in-market expansion that does not require our active facilitation (i.e. begins to self-perpetuate). For this scope, expanding partnerships and building consensus among lending organizations and agricultural banks has the potential to catalyze our efforts and open pathways for Midwestern farmers to invest in the stewardship of their land and pay dividends for future generations.
As identified in our recently completed Scaling Roadmap, for soil health to become a standardized metric and soil conservation practices to become widely adopted on farms across the Midwest, Delta Institute plans to:
- Compile and demonstrate in-depth market evidence to raise awareness of the value and return on investment of building soil health to farmers and appraisal firms,
- Improve effectiveness and efficiency of soil health analysis, and,
- Actualize the proof of concept into a viable appraisal approach and operationalized practice.
Our Approach
We have worked on this scope for nearly four years, and feel that right now is the best time to address this need. Delta has cultivated an in-depth network of partners, practitioners, and lessons-learned to inform this proposed project—as well as developing our understanding of both barriers and opportunities (systematic, cultural, and practical).
Further, Delta continues to learn—via both direct engagement and partner feedback—that interventions that align soil health and land valuation must be pragmatic, market-based, and easily integrated into existing business tools and processes for them to be of actual use. These learnings are informing our approach on the creation of a “missing” soil health appraisal market (and the resulting exciting opportunity to create one), and identifying (to then develop, expand, and spread) those tools and resources best suited to supporting conservation efforts on working lands throughout the Midwest.
Our Impact
Delta Institute has over a decade of land valuation and agricultural financial instrument creation experience, yet we are excited—and need—to learn how to create a new marketplace that centers soil health, including how best to structure financial products and other market incentives to fund and scale the utilization of soil health practices across the region.
Key Outcomes related to our work include:
Building Soil Health Appraisal Consensus across the Midwest: Outreach and education have proven to be valuable strategies towards developing and implementing a successful Pilot Program. Now that a proof-of-concept has been established through the completion of this Pilot Program, Delta has presented the Program’s results to numerous agricultural appraisal and financing organizations.
Identify, Develop, and Implement Market Drivers that Leverage Soil Health Land Appraisal to Increase Adoption of Soil Health Practices across the Midwest: Delta has identified loan officers as crucial partners needed to catalyze the creation of a soil health market and identify the emerging market pathways and platforms in which the appraised value of soil health may be traded—as Delta recognizes the critical importance of the transfer of capital from lenders to producers as an essential next step in facilitating wider adoption of soil health practices.
This scope of work directly aligns with numerous implementation efforts that are operating concurrently.
Our Partners
This exciting scope of work is being supported by Builders Vision and the McDougal Family Foundation.
Want to get involved?
Contact us at development@delta-institute.org to learn more about this scope and to partner in your home area of the Midwest!