Interested but Uncertain: Carbon markets and data sharing among US row crop farmers

The potential for farmers and agriculture to sequester carbon and contribute to global climate change goals is widely discussed, including more recently, through voluntary carbon markets operated through private or public entities. Despite growing interest, there is currently low participation in agricultural carbon markets and limited understanding of farmer perceptions and willingness to participate. Furthermore, farmer concern for data privacy may complicate participation in agricultural carbon markets that necessitates farmer data sharing with multiple entities. Here we address these current gaps through a farmer survey of row crop farmers in 27 U.S. states and use multinomial logit models to predict drivers for participating in a carbon market. We find that the majority of farmers are aware of carbon markets and would like to sell carbon credits, but express high uncertainty about carbon market information, policies, markets and cost impacts. Just over half of farmers indicated they would share their data for education (57%), developing tools and models (54%) and improving market and supply chains (51%). However, only a minority of respondents were willing to share their data with public organizations (45%), private organizations (38%), and government organizations (29%). Farmers that wanted to participate in carbon markets (as compared to those that did not), were more likely to have higher farm revenues, identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) farmers, be more likely to share their data with private organizations, more likely to change farming practices, and have more positive perceptions of the impact of carbon markets on farm profitability. These results suggest a general interest in carbon market participation, but identify clear need for increasing technical information for farmers, and addressing farmer concerns around data privacy and sharing to facilitate greater participation in carbon markets.