A Closer Look at RIPE’s Qualifying Practices: Methodology and Sources for Conservation Crop Rotation
RIPE’s researchers continually work to expand the set of practices that would qualify for a $100 per unit payment under the proposed RIPE100 program by collecting research that demonstrates the combined environmental value of climate-smart practices.
In April 2022, we approved conservation crop rotation (NRCS Code 328). Conservation crop rotation reduces greenhouse gas emissions and provides additional environmental benefits valued at over $240 per acre per year.
We found that farmers who adopt conservation crop rotation provide over $170 in air quality benefits, nearly $50 in water quality benefits, and $12 in soil quality benefits per acre. They also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 0.2 metric tons per acre, which is about $4 per acre.
Review our methodology and sources in the charts below and access our current list of proposed qualifying practices here.
Conservation Crop Rotation
| Ecosystem Service | Value ($/acre/year) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Carbon Sequestration | $5 | USDA COMET-Planner indicates an average GHG reduction value of .23 metric tons/acre for conservation crop rotation. Priced at a carbon payment of $20/ton of GHG, this GHG reduction is valued at $5/acre. |
| Reduced Soil Erosion (water quality benefits) | $39 | According to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (2017) , Conservation Crop Rotation reduces erosion by 9.5 tons of soil/acre, valued at $39/acre in water quality benefits. |
| Reduced Herbicide (water quality benefits) | $10 | Conservation Crop Rotation reduces herbicide application by 25-51%, or an average of 38% (Union of Concerned Scientists (2017)). The baseline herbicide application is 1kg/acre (Hunt et al., 2017), meaning conservation crop rotation reduced herbicide by .38kg/acre. The value of herbicide reduction is $27/kg (Pimental 2005).
https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publication/?seqNo115=313376 The study “Alternate wetting and drying reduces aquifer withdrawal in Mississippi rice production systems” by R. Lee Atwill, et al. (2020) finds that AWD reduces diesel costs by a baseline average of $83/ha at a per liter cost of $.70. This equates to a 118L/ha diesel reduction, or 47.75 L/acres. Each liter of diesel emits .00264 metric tons of CO2. https://ecoscore.be/en/info/ecoscore/co2 47.75 L/acre * .00264 tons/L equals .13 tons of CO2/acre. Multiplied by $20/ton of CO2, this equals $3/acre. |
| Air Quality | $177 | Conservation Crop Rotation reduces fertilizer use by 50% (Union of Concerned Scientists (2017). An average of 84.5 pounds of nitrogen/acre is used for corn, cotton, soy, and wheat (USDA). Conversion to ammonia is an average of 50 pounds NH3 reduced/acre (Goebbes et al., 2003, Mikkelsen, 2009, Dari et al., 2019, Jones et al., 2020) . A 50% reduction equals 8.5 pounds ammonia is reduced/acre. The average social cost of ammonia is $21/pound (Hansen, NASA, 2014; Heo, et al. 2016). |
| Healthy Soil | $12 | According to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (2017), Conservation Crop Rotation reduces erosion by 9.5 tons of soil/acre, valued at $1.27/ton of soil according to the USDA report “Economic Measures of Soil Conservation Benefits). |
| Total | $243 |