Rich harvest Farmers growing a return with soil carbon credits

On a blustery spring day, Thomas Gent is walking through a field of winter wheat on his family's farm straddling the Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire border.

- Joanna Partridge

On a blustery spring day, Thomas Gent is walking through a field of winter wheat on his family's farm straddling the Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire border. Some shoots reach his knees, while the ground between the plants is covered with clover. Sinking a spade into the soil, Gent, 27, grins as he points to the freshly dug earth on the blade. "Look at the root structure," he says. "It rained 20mm last night. The water has drained down because the soil structure is in the right format."

Unlike most farmed fields in the UK, this one has not been ploughed for 17 years, ever since Gent's family switched to regenerative agricultural methods designed to increase soil carbon stores.

Such practices are not just good for the environment; they are now becoming big business. Companies are springing up that evaluate existing carbon stocks in soil and track their improvement, allowing farmers to earn and sell carbon credits that can provide them with an alternative income stream.

Modern agriculture has damaged the earth's soils, through repeated cultivation of the same crops and use of fertilisers. Regenerative methods include: tilling the soil less or not at all; growing cover crops such as clover; reducing the use of ammonia-based fertiliser to restore soil health; and keeping organic matter in the soil to help crops grow and sequester carbon.

Back in 2008, when Thomas was a boy, the Gent family were viewed as trailblazers for wanting to move away from conventional systems on their 800-hectare farm where they grow cereals and other crops. Such an approach remains rare, yet Thomas believes the movement's time has come.

He also works for Danish startup Agreena, which aims to grow the regenerative movement as it develops what it describes as the "largest soil carbon programme in Europe", building a model to produce credits that could be bought by companies for their climate change programmes.