New technology builds soil carbon
This is branded content for Loam Bio
Australian farmers know the importance of soil carbon to improve soil health and productivity.
Now, there is a scientifically-backed tool to help unlock and store stable carbon in agricultural soil that is easily integrated into existing cropping operations.
Australian agricultural company Loam Bio has developed novel technology for sequestering carbon into farming soils.
The world-first 'carbon fixing' fungal inoculant, CarbonBuilder, builds stable soil carbon for farmers and delivers maximum benefits back to the farm business by effectively allowing farmers to grow two crops in one paddock: a grain crop above, and a soil carbon crop below.
With the worldwide carbon market expected to more than double to US$2.68 trillion by 2028, there is unprecedented opportunity for farmers to take advantage of this new market, and diversify on-farm income.
Loam Bio is helping make that happen.
Since 2019, Loam Bio has invested more than $70 million in lab projects, replicated field trials, and full-farm demonstrations to develop the game-changing technology.
This also includes academic validation, with independent Australian researchers recently demonstrating that Loam Bio's CarbonBuilder fungi can increase soil carbon levels, and stabilise the carbon too.
Historically fungi's effect on carbon cycling has been largely unknown.
Recent scientific breakthroughs have been made by research teams across Australia.
This includes peer-reviewed research from Western Sydney University showing inoculation with fungi from Loam Bio's microbial library delivered a 9.4 per cent higher carbon level in soil.
With this body of research, and commercialisation of this technology, farmers now have a proven method to take carbon from the atmosphere, and secure it in the soil, where it's useful to improve soil fertility, crop yields, and put carbon credits on the balance sheet.
In field studies over recent years across wheat, barley and canola crops, CarbonBuilder has been delivering between three to five more tonnes of carbon dioxide per hectare over 'business as usual'.
In a small pilot (1500 hectares) growing canola, 7000 tonnes of carbon were stored out of the atmosphere by the CarbonBuilder product.
Farmers now have the opportunity to mitigate business risk, or take advantage of the carbon markets by using CarbonBuilder, the easy-to-adopt tool in broadacre cropping that can be scaled at speed in broadacre agriculture.
Farmers like Steve Nicholson, who runs a 4000-hectare mixed-farming enterprise, 'Eniver', at Wirrinya in NSW, are optimistic.
"We know that soil carbon is one of the keystones to increase productivity across our operation," he said.
"Loam takes a game-changing, whole-of-farm approach to carbon projects.
"The science says it should work, and we're all very confident as we wait to see what happens.
"It's a no brainer - you can't lose having a crack at it and there's no downside to it.
"Loam's products are going to change the world."
- Loam Bio has a team of 140, which includes researchers, agronomists and carbon project specialists in Australia as well as Loam offices across the world. Loam's headquarters is in NSW.
This is branded content for Loam Bio
