Money Matters
Payment Schedule
50% of yearly payments will be provided within two weeks of contract signing to address upfront cost barriers associated with practice implementation. Once sampling and verification are completed, farmers receive the other 50%.
Price
$40 per metric ton of CO2e
Stackability (With goverment programs and other markets)
Refer to program category descriptions for general stackability potential. Reach out to the program contact for more information.
Carbon Related Incentive
Inset
Contracting Info
Contract Length
Five year contracts
Data Collected at Enrollment
Field boundaries and operational data, including climate-smart conservation practice information.
Enrollment Assistance
Farmer enrolls via the SWOF website (theoutcomesfund.com) or by working directly with a conservation agronomist or recruiting partner
Agronomic/Technical Assistance
The Program will utilize a network of on-staff conservation agronomists to provide technical assistance to farmers before, during, and after enrollment. The conservation agronomists have backgrounds in either conservation, agronomy, or a related field and interface with farmers on the farm to help implement the climate-smart practices and address questions or issues that arise with the management of the practices. The conservation agronomists also interface with USDA-NRCS to develop environmental assessments to meet NEPA requirements and check fanner highly erodible land and wetland compliance status to ensure eligibility. The Program will also have a conservation agronomist on staff dedicated to working with historically underserved farmers. The network of conservation agronomists will expand to 16 to provide sound technical assistance to farmers.
Technical Info
Lead Organization
The Iowa Soybean Association (ISA), in partnership with the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund (SWOF) operated by AgOutcomes Inc. (a subsidiary of the Iowa Soybean Association)
Outcome Estimation
A data application programming interface will allow for the seamless transfer of data to the environmental outcome quantification contractor. The baseline and future farm operational data are combined with multiple years of historical “spin-up” data to establish a baseline for predicting changes associated with new conservation practices. USDA-NASS Cropland Data Layers (CDL) and USDA Crop Management Zone (CMZ) operations templates are used for parameterizing the COMET-Farm model for years prior to the farmer-provided data. Average annual CO2e estimates are calculated based on a 10-year projection from the year the conservation practice was implemented. The CO2e estimates are calculated by comparing baseline fluxes to those corresponding with simulation years following the conservation practice intervention and account for nitrous oxide reductions and soil carbon sequestration. The quantification process typically takes less than 48 hours.
Verification
Implementation of agricultural land management interventions for which inset credits are produced will be verified using a standardized process involving field visits, photos, receipts and documentation, and remote sensing.
Penalty for Temporary Break in Practice Implementation
The SWOF system will assign annual buffer pools to the CO2e and water quality outcomes to account for reversals from fields under contract. The CO2e buffer pool will be 10% of all outcomes, and the water quality buffer is variable based on upper limits for water quality improvements. These outcomes are not sold or reported to partners.
