IFC recommends three tools to encourage farmers to reduce agricultural carbon

Identifying farmers as central to the process of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, experts say, requires technical tools to encourage them to shift production towards agricultural carbon reduction.

Experts at home and abroad at the Seminar “Digital Breakthrough in Agriculture” The reporting and measurement tool for greenhouse gas emissions, dated 14th March, states that the use of digital technology in agriculture in Vietnam in particular and in countries in general has many constraints, due to existing infrastructure problems, financial difficulties, awareness and regulation.

Among them, farmers are the key players who face the most challenges in transition.

Vietnam’s commitment to zero net emissions by 2050 also highlights the important role of agriculture. Patrick Buergi, co-founder of the International Non-Profit Fund for Climate, Energy (Myclimate), said that this is a challenging target for agriculture, but it also opens up many opportunities to reduce emissions at a low cost.

“Now many big\ agricultural companies have strong commitments to netzero. However, 80% of their emissions come from supply chains and manufacturing. This seems to be out of their control,” Patrick Buergi pointed out.

Myclimate representative analyzes the fact that some farmers have been doing the same thing for hundreds of years, so it’s not easy to change. The solution is to have tools to encourage them to produce reduced emissions to sell carbon credits.

“The farmers are the most challenged in eradicating the carbon footprint in agriculture, not just in big. Financial institutions should focus on investing in farmers to overcome these challenges.”

Mr. Patrick Buergi, Myclimate Foundation

Three tools recommended by IFC

At the Seminar, to support the transformation of agricultural production in Vietnam, Marta Bogdanic, Senior Project Officer of IFC’s Agricultural Consultancy Service, introduced tools to measure greenhouse gas emissions.

“The tools will help measure, manage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and how to use the results collected during the sustainability certification process, product positioning in the retail segment and reporting on climate impacts,” said Marta Bogdanic.

The three tools are provided by IFC’s Agricultural Consulting Service, including the Cool Farm Tool. It’s essentially a tool to calculate greenhouse gas emissions at the farm level, measuring emissions from agricultural production of a particular crop or in the livestock sector.

CO2 Neutral label solution, understood as a tool to verify the carbon emissions of a product.

The International Rice Research Institute’s (IRRI) greenhouse gas emission calculator allows for a high degree of flexibility in input information relating to activity and emission data, as well as choosing appropriate measurements for later synthesis.

“All tools recommended by IFC are accredited by the certification bodies. IFC also ensures that processes comply with science-based objectives for quality assurance. The role of quality control in de-carbonization projects is one of IFC’s main activities, providing customers with independent assessment of carbon reduction targets in projects,”  Marta Bogdanic emphasized. 

Source: MEKONG ASEAN