African Farmers Set to Reap Big from Carbon Credits
By George Okore
BUNGOMA---Mrs. Margaret Naliaka resigned for her teaching career to turn into tending her vegetables, well convinced that the sudden change of career will bring her the much valued currency from the newly introduced carbon credit scheme.
Like her fellow villagers in Bungoma County in western Kenya, Margaret is convinced that the new livelihood will enable her improve food security, help address climate change, and improve the lives and livelihoods of rural dwellers who live in poverty. She and other colleagues are beneficiaries of Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project, which intends to boost African Carbon Market through environmental friendly projects that will purchase carbon credits from farmers.
Like other farmers from Africa, she is reaping direct benefits of the first African Emission Reductions Purchase Agreement (ERPA) signed at The Hague, Netherlands in October 2010. Under the deal, farmers plant tress on large scale to offset the harmful effects of carbon emissions by industries and other sources.
During the Hague conference, World Bank Climate Change Special Envoy Andrew Steer said the project will ensure a triple win. It will promote policies and programmes that will increase farm productivity and incomes. Secondly, it will make agriculture more resilient to variations in climate, and thus promote stability and security. Thirdly, it will make the agriculture sector part of the solution to the climate change problem rather than part of the problem.
Developed with the support of World Bank, the project generates carbon credits which are sold to the Bank-administered BioCarbon Fund. The direct benefit to local communities is over $350,000 with an initial payment of $80,000 to be made in the first year, 2011. In addition, the BioCarbon Fund, created to help open the carbon market, develops methodologies and tools that are in the public domain.
Under the deal, small-holder farmers from Africa like Mrs Naliaka will reap the rewards of the first soil carbon project in Africa. As African countries scale up participation in carbon markets, they benefit from carbon finance to support the environment and generate revenues for local communities.
For example, the Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project is being implemented by Swedish non-governmental organization Vi Agroforestry on 45,000 hectares in Nyanza and Western Provinces of Kenya. Here, small-holder farmers and business entrepreneurs are trained in diverse cropland management techniques such as covering crops, crop rotation, compost management, and agro-forestry.
According to Kenya’s Minister for Agriculture Dr Sally Kosgei, improved investment in Carbon trade in Kenya is part of the newly signed Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP). The strategy signed by African Heads of States in Maputo in 2003, appreciates private sector participation as key to sustainable growth in agriculture and aims at positioning the sector strategically as a key driver for sustained economic growth.
Carbon trading increases yields of the land and generates additional sources of income for the farmers through the payment for environmental services in the form of carbon credits.
“The Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project is not only the first project that sells soil carbon credits in Africa, it is also paving the way for a new approach to carbon accounting methodologies,” says Joëlle Chassard, Manager of Carbon Finance Unit at the World Bank” .
The ERPA adds the benefits of carbon finance to a sustainable agricultural land management project that increases the productivity of the Kenyan farmers and also sequesters carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. “We are proud to be part of the development of this ground-breaking project,” said Henrik Brundin, Director at Vi Agroforestry. ”
Nobelle Laureate Professor Wangari Mathai, while appreciating that carbon trade has gained prominence in Africa, says governments must educate farmers on the trade as it has long term implications on land management and use. She says that in order to benefit from the global carbon market, African farmers must plant trees on a large scale.
The BioCarbon Fund is an initiative with public and private contributions, administered by the World Bank. It purchases emission reductions from afforestation and reforestation projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), as well as from land-use sector projects outside the CDM. These include projects that reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and increase carbon sequestration in soils through improved agriculture practices.