Regen Farm Mutual

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Terry Sim:

"AUSTRALIAN farmers are flocking to aggregate their carbon and environmental assets while protecting their valuable farm data via a unique co-operative structure.

A farmer-owned broker Regen Farmers Mutual has been formed by conservation finance advisor Rohan Clarke and regenerative farming consultant Andrew Ward to help farmers understand, aggregate and maximise their carbon and biodiversity market power and reduce transaction costs.

With Australia’s carbon market forecast to grow from $226 million last year to $24 billion by 2030, and pressure on governments to set ‘net zero’ targets, farmers are focussing on income opportunities in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and meeting market expectations.

Mr Clarke said landowners and farmers can now get paid for planting trees, improving soil fertility, increasing ground cover, improving waterways, providing habitats and increasing biodiversity on their property.

“The financial rewards for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are there.

“The problem is farmers know what their tractor costs, and what their land is worth to the bank, but most wouldn’t have an idea how to track the information they need for voluntary carbon offsets nor how to go about negotiating it,” he said.

“There are 90,000 farmers in Australia, but only the very largest can tap into this, with only 210 agricultural carbon projects registered under Australia’s Emissions Reduction Fund so far.

“A lot of farmers want to improve their land, to put methods in place to make a drought less severe. Now they can be recognised for it and paid for it,” he said.

“It (Regen Farmers Mutual) puts farmers in the driver’s seat.

“It helps farmers come together and aggregate in a location or a region to do a carbon, biodiversity or water transaction, and because it is a mutual, 80 percent of the value stays with farmers, rather than with other brokers you would have to pay 30-80pc of gross returns,” Mr Clarke said.

“The farmers retain more of the value because they own the broker.”

The shared ownership of the Regen infrastructure would also enable greater efficiencies in training, execution and compliance, and broaden the types of transactions and the value captured from data and provenance, he said.

“It also allows the farmer to tap into premium, purpose-driven brands which like that they are environmentally sustainable.”"

(https://www.sheepcentral.com/farmers-unite-to-unlock-environmental-asset-potential/)