
Growing trees is a long-term investment – trees require additional labour inputs for their establishment and maintenance, and it can take several years to see benefits to crop yields. This delayed return on investment has been a major challenge in promoting the adoption of agroforestry. However, if this gap could be bridged, it would benefit smallholder farmers through increased food security and resilience to climate change, as well as the global community through climate change mitigation from GHG (green house gas) sequestration.
Carbon markets have the potential to build such a bridge. Climate change has made GHG emission sequestration into a valuable asset, one that farmers can create with the resources already available to them – land and labour, along with seeds. Farmers could then realise the financial value of these carbon assets through carbon markets, providing them returns to cover their investment. But land-based emissions in both compliance and voluntary markets are burdened with complex rules and require ongoing monitoring, reporting and verification, incurring transaction costs that are prohibitive for individual smallholder farmers.
The Africa Carbon Credit Exchange (ACCE) along with GKI will partner with businesses and NGOs that have broad access to smallholder farmers and leverage their infrastructure and extension networks to ensure sufficient scale and robust implementation.
Carbon offsets based on tree intercropping represent a legitimate new financial asset for smallholder farmers, and once that increases yields – which means enhanced food security and reduced pressure on Zambia’s precious resources.
Posted in Africa, Business, Carbon Basics, Carbon Finance, Economics, Environment, GKI in Action, Resources, Uncategorized
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