By Editor, Global AgInvesting Media
Agoro Carbon has issued its first soil carbon credits generated from cropland and pastureland projects across the United States. This issuance marks the initial delivery under a 12-year contract with Microsoft to provide 2.6 million carbon removal credits, an agreement reached in June 2025 after Agoro Carbon completed Microsoft’s carbon-removal due diligence assessment.
The delivery serves as an early operational proof of concept for large-scale nature-based off-take agreements, demonstrating how multi-year corporate climate commitments can translate into verified physical removals.
The credits reflect carbon sequestered during the 2021 and 2022 vintage years. Both project areas—VCS 3634 for cropland and VCS 3656 for pastureland—were registered and verified through Verra using version 2 of the VM0042 Improved Agricultural Land Management methodology.
Agoro Carbon CEO Elliot Formal noted that the projects are designed to deliver durable, nature-based removals through direct partnerships with landholders.
“Our projects sit on U.S. farmland, under long-term contracts with the producers who own it, and they sit firmly at the high-quality, high-durability end of the nature-based market,” Formal said in the press release.
Agoro Carbon intends to transition to version 3 of the VM0042 methodology following its scheduled publication in early 2027 to align future issuances with the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market’s Core Carbon Principles assessment.
Program Scope and Producer Engagement
Agoro Carbon’s initiative currently includes more than 600 participating farmers and ranchers managing 2.5 million acres across 34 U.S. states. The program incentivizes land management modifications such as cover crop adoption, tillage reduction, and improved pasture grazing techniques. To assist land managers with the operational risks and financial hurdles associated with these practice changes, Agoro Carbon provides upfront funding alongside technical assistance, having disbursed over $30 million in prepayments to date.
Participating agricultural producers have noted both operational and economic reasons for enrolling, particularly as a buffer against volatile markets.
“With commodity prices being lean, and input prices being high, Agoro was able to help with implementing some soil health practices that we wouldn’t have been able to justify otherwise,” said Robert Gomke, a farmer and rancher from Gildford, Montana, in the company’s official release.
Enrolled producers enter into 10-year agreements and receive ongoing operational guidance from agronomic staff, who constitute roughly one-third of the company’s total workforce. Clint Myers, a grower in Latah, Washington who transitioned to no-till practices five years ago, highlighted the long-term utility of the collaboration.
“Working with Agoro’s agronomists and our local agronomists we were able to put together a transition plan that made sense both economically and agronomically,” Myers said. “After 5 years we have seen our soil health improve and our ROI per acre is far above what it used to be with conventional tillage practices.”
Agoro Carbon plans to issue credits from these enrolled lands annually through 2037, offering available volumes to external corporate buyers navigating an increasingly scrutinized voluntary carbon market.
Verra CEO Mandy Rambharos emphasized the broader role of agricultural practices in long-term carbon strategies, stating, “Agricultural soils are one of the largest and most underused carbon sinks we have, and turning that potential into credible, verified removals is hard work.”
Measurement and Verification Framework
To establish credit integrity, Agoro Carbon quantifies net soil carbon changes using a data collection system that combines physical field sampling with process-based computer modeling. Across participating properties, the company has collected over 110,000 stratified, GPS-verified soil samples analyzed via laboratory dry combustion, yielding a 7.06% average margin of error at a 90% confidence level across data from more than 500 growers. This empirical sampling calibrates the predictive models used to measure overall carbon storage, which then undergo third-party auditing and verification by Verra prior to credit issuance.
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