Regenerating agricultural land to remove carbon

Based on historic growth of large farming operations, we project the total area under conservation agriculture will increase from 148 million hectares to peak at 400–327 million hectares by 2035. We assume that as regenerative annual cropping becomes more widely used, farms that have already adopted conservation agriculture will convert to these more effective soil fertility practices in response to consumer demand for fewer harmful herbicides. The benefits of that conversion are counted by the Regenerative Annual Cropping solution. Nonetheless, conservation agriculture will continue to offer significant benefits, reducing carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 12.81–8.08 gigatons based on average carbon sequestration rates of 0.25–0.78 metric tons of carbon per hectare per year, depending on the region. Establishment costs are low at US$89.78–56.85 billion with a lifetime net operational savings of US$2.52–1.58 trillion and lifetime net profit of US$99.10–61.55 billion.