SOK – FUNDING FOR REGENERATIVE FARMING RESEARCH

Little is known about carbon stocks in deep soil layers

Regenerative farming enables carbon to be sequestered from the atmosphere and stored in fields. But how much carbon is there in Finnish fields right now? Soils research usually focuses on the surface layer, but the deeper underground we go, the less we know about the soil.

With the aid of SOK’s funding, researchers are determining the current carbon stock in the soil of 30 Carbon Action farms located all across Finland. Researchers from the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry will be responsible for studying soil samples of up to one metre in depth. This research will produce very important and unique information about carbon in the soil.

Valuable data about carbon sequestration 

With the aid of SOK’s funding, soil samples were collected for study in autumn 2019. In spring 2020, SOK continued to support the Carbon Action platform’s research efforts by granting further funding for the analysis of these samples. The one-metre soil samples will provide information about variations in the amount of carbon contained in different soil layers.

Farmers of the future may work in the carbon market

In the future, farmers may be paid to store carbon in the soil. In order for this to be possible, basic research is required to produce the data that would be necessary to create a verification system for carbon storage under various conditions.

Traditional sources rarely finance demanding and resource-intensive sampling and background studies, so without SOK’s funding, there might not be any research into the carbon stored in deep soil layers.

Collaboration began in 2019.