Bayer lets farmers measure carbon footprint

Beginning as a pilot program, Project Carbonview is focused on creating awareness and acceptance for low-carbon fuel markets. Eligible farmers who enroll in the pilot will receive compensation for participation. Ultimately, once these markets are broadly established, Bayer anticipates growers will be compensated based on the implementation of sustainable farming practices and will share in the financial incentives created by low-carbon fuel markets.

Track carbon emissions

Project Carbonview is focused on the United States. It will initially enable U.S. ethanol producers (corn is a key ingredient in ethanol production) to track carbon emissions across the entire supply chain – from planting through production – and implement more sustainable business practices by providing the data needed to make more informed purchasing decisions and reduce their carbon emissions.

On-farm data collection with FieldView

For farmers who opt into the program, Project Carbonview streamlines on-farm data collection with Bayer’s Climate FieldView application and connects it with delivery and transportation data captured from the 54,000 U.S. active users of Bushel’s platform. Through the Climate FieldView platform, farmers continue to own their data and choose who to share their data with.

Project CarbonView complements the existing Bayer Carbon Initiative, a program which incentivizes the adoption of climate-smart practices, creating new revenue streams for growers who use technology to keep carbon in the soil

Project Carbonview, which is built on AWS, allows permissioned access to on-demand product transaction and crop exchange market data from the ethanol production facilities through the Bushel platform to evaluate the carbon impact of sourcing and purchasing decisions.

Expand to other feed grains

The team behind Project Carbonview is piloting the solution with U.S. corn producers during the 2022 season and plans to expand the program in the future to other global regions and other feed grains, food grains and oilseeds such as soybeans. Within the pilot, the team is exploring how Project Carbonview can assist ethanol producers to capture the impact of corn production within their emissions reporting, as well as opportunities for users to share best practices for achieving emissions benchmarks within a dedicated community.

Also read: Bayer sets up carbon sequestration market for farmers