Cut through the
Carbon Clutter

Corteva’s Carbon Initiative is available in 30 states (Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin) and includes 15 of the most common crop types across the U.S. (barley, canola, corn, cotton, dry edible beans, dry field peas, flax, oats, peanuts, rye, sorghum, soybeans, sugar beets, sunflowers, dry wheat).

Currently, eligible practices include introducing cover crops, reducing tillage, and improved nitrogen timing. We give you a significant amount of flexibility to choose the practices and the extent to which you want to use these practices, field by field.

Introducing Cover Crops:

• New cover crop adoption
• Longer duration of a cover crop by delaying termination
• Longer duration of a cover crop by planting earlier (interseeding)

Reducing Tillage

• Reducing tillage passes
• Delaying tillage from fall to spring (>90 days)
• Reducing tillage intensity by changing implement (based on NRCS STIR scores)

Improved Nitrogen Timing:

• Moving N fertilizer application from fall to closer to/at planting
  

Increasing Biodiversity:

• Add legume species to cover crop blend that doesn’t currently have legume
• Add new cash crop to crop rotation (e.g., add wheat to corn-soy rotation)

Yes, you must implement a practice change anytime post harvest 2022 to qualify. Buyers want to know that the credits they purchase reflect net-new carbon sequestered (i.e., new practices that increase soil organic carbon and/or abate greenhouse gas emissions). Unfortunately, continuing an existing practice with no additional practice change does not make you eligible. We do not offer carbon credits for historical practices at this time.

Indigo sells credits generated each year directly to buyers through its extensive buyer network. Your payment is based on the average price of total credits sold that year.

Corteva and Indigo ensure you always receive 75% of this average price with the security of a guaranteed minimum payment of $20 for each credit you generate. For farmers who enroll in the 2022 crop year, farmers could expect up to $30/credit from increased market demand.

Payment for credits you produce in a given year vest over a 5 year period. This vesting schedule encourages you to maintain practices without a long-term contractual practice commitment. It’s what allows for the flexibility to change your practices based on agronomic need.

When enrolling in Corteva’s Carbon Initiative, you sign a 5-year contract that states:

• You intend to implement and maintain eligible practice(s)
• You will log historical and current practice data in Granular Insights
• You will allow soil sampling at no cost on fields if selected
• You will share data with Indigo Ag and Climate Action Reserve for the purpose of ONLY generating credits ​and honing Indigo’s carbon quantification model
• You will allow Indigo Ag to sell credits through their buyer network; you share fully in the upside and receive 75% of the credit sale price
• You will receive payment for the credits you produce, which are vested over 5 years

Please note: You can change field plans when necessary. If you are unable to implement qualifying practice(s), we will not ask you to refund any payments you’ve already received. Your payments will be paused until you resume the practice(s) and demonstrate net-new carbon sequestration above your established baseline.

You can also opt-out of the program at any time, but you will forfeit any unvested payments.

We designed our carbon program with the intention of making it simple for farmers to maximize the value of their soil health practices. Corteva’s Carbon Initiative leverages Indigo’s strong capabilities in measuring farmers’ carbon impact, generating independently verified credits, and accessing premium prices for those credits through their extensive buyer network. Corteva will continue to assist farmers in navigating the risks and rewards of investing in new soil health practices while also helping farmers log their practices into Corteva’s free digital tool, Granular Insights. This collaboration allows us to deliver an agronomically-minded, fully-supported carbon program and the ability to help farmers produce the premium credits that buyers want and are willing to pay higher prices for.

Indigo Ag was founded in 2014 with a mission of harnessing nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet. Today, the company’s technology connects stakeholders across the agricultural ecosystem to unlock sustainability and profitability benefits for all.

The Climate Action Reserve verifies and issues the carbon credits produced through our program. Climate Action Reserve is a leading global carbon registry that establishes strict standards for quantifying and verifying GHG emission reduction projects to ensure the integrity, transparency and financial value in the North American carbon market. Having carbon credits certified and issued by the Climate Action Reserve provides that stamp of approval that these are the premium credits that buyers want.

There are no program fees to participate.

Corteva and Indigo cover all soil sampling and certification costs.

Data requirements will depend on your crop rotation. In general, you must provide an initial 3 to 5 years of historical data when you enroll (plus current practice data each crop year), including:

• Field boundaries/land data
• As-planted data by crop type, date
• Fertilizer application data covering products, rates, type and date
• Tillage data by type/implement and date
• Harvest data covering yield, date and harvest product
• Cover Cropping (if applicable) by type, planting and termination date, and termination type
• Irrigation

By participating in the Carbon Initiative, you will log your practices in Granular Insights. This data is shared with Indigo and Climate Action Reserve to quantify and certify your carbon credits. Indigo and Climate Action Reserve will only use your data for the purpose of generating carbon credits and refining Indigo’s carbon quantification models. Your personal data will never be shared with carbon credit buyers. Furthermore, you always own your data and it is protected in accordance with Corteva’s and Indigo’s data privacy policies.

Yes. In addition to meeting the eligibility requirements, you will need to provide at least three years of historical data on the fields you want to enroll. You will confirm that you manage the enrolled fields in your contract; we do not require any signatory permission from the landowner.