KEMPTVILLE — Canadian farmers looking to sell carbon credits as a way of increasing their income won’t be getting rich any time soon. According to Adam Hayes, a soil management specialist with the ministry of agriculture and food, the best bet for farmers right now is no-till. But 500 acres of no-till under current credit trading prices will pay out only $905, an amount that might increase to $4,250 by 2016 if the market goes as expected.

Carbon credits have been trading for $6 at Chicago and $11 at Montreal, Hayes told farmers at the 2009 Crop Day Conference. Removing the carbon from the air is a way of reducing green house gas emissions.

By no-tilling (direct seeding) a farmer removes carbon from the air and stores it in the soil. No-till has an environmental advantage over conventional till, removing about 0.17 tonnes of carbon dioxide per acre. He gets credits for the amount of carbon he sequesters in the soil and sells it to industries that have exceeded their quotas.

In Alberta, where the system of carbon trading is most advanced, utilities and regulated companies have three options: reduce carbon emissions through new technology, purchase carbon credits from a third party or pay $15 per tonne into a provincially administered research fund.

International carbon sales quadrupled in 2006 to more than US$25 billion but Alberta only buys Alberta.

The amount of paper work will be horrendous. Hayes says the record for a farm might have to go back to 1990. Every farm will have to be documented and verified by an inspector, field by field. The farm selling the credits pays for the documentation and inspection. If farmers were forced to conventionally till their ground, the credits would be temporarily suspended, he says.

Coming with the green revolution is an industry of consultants who will register your farm and do the paper work. However, the Alberta government warns farmers to be careful with the kind of contract they negotiate and sign.

Hayes is buoyed by the burgeoning green industry. Commenting on the closing of Ontario’s coal generation stations in 2014, he said. "We can’t beat coal on price. We can beat them on green."

Ontario plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15 per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050.