Regenerating Nature and Rewarding Farmers

While climate change and soil degradation pose risks for South African farmers, the opportunity to embrace and solve these challenges now presents itself through regenerative agriculture. The future looks bright, leading to even greater rewards to farmers.

UPL Corp South Africa is helping farmers restore life to their soils, while also supporting recovery and resilience in the face of negative environmental events. The answer lies in regenerative agriculture—supported by UPL Corp South Africa’s pioneering programme, CarbonSmart.

Piloted over the past two years, the CarbonSmart programme was publicly launched in October 2024. It was created to support these essential soil and plant health initiatives with information and training sessions, along with innovative, natural, and sustainable solutions. But most importantly, it provides farmers with the potential to earn additional income from the sale of verified carbon credits generated by the programme.

CarbonSmart: Developed in Partnership

The CarbonSmart programme is a powerful initiative developed in partnership with Orizon Agriculture—a carbon credit rewards programme—and is already proving to be highly successful.

Its key focus includes growing cover crops, minimizing tillage, using Natural Plant Protection (NPP) BioSolutions, reducing on-farm greenhouse gas emissions, improving soil and plant health, and livestock integration.

Through CarbonSmart, UPL Corp and Orizon provide a genuinely innovative program that helps farmers with technical expertise, training, soil health and crop protection solutions, as well as tailored support in generating high-quality, verified carbon credits.

Additional benefits include free personalized soil insight reports, access to UPL Corp South Africa’s satellite monitoring tool CropVision, and expert technical support to enhance land management practices, as well as increase soil carbon content.

How Farmers Can Increase Earnings with Carbon Credits

Regenerative agriculture practices generate carbon credits that CarbonSmart can trade or sell on farmers’ behalf, with the programme already on track to generate 23,000 carbon credits in early 2025.

The carbon credits are sold to reputable companies and organizations looking to offset their own hard-to-abate carbon emissions, with farmers receiving the majority share of the net revenue.

The overall result is a huge win for both farmers and the environment. Farmers who implement regenerative agriculture techniques see short- and long-term gains through increased crop yield, improved soil health, as well as better water and nutrient-use efficiency, all culminating in sustainable profits for the farmer.

On-Farm Benefits

• +5% yield
• +5 t/ha dry matter biomass (for livestock feed)
• Carbon credits/revenue potential

However, the biggest win is the positive impact on the environment, enabling it to heal as soils retain more water, thereby increasing organic matter, and restoring biodiversity. As the natural balance returns to the ecosystem, it helps impact future crop and environmental successes.

Expected Environmental Benefits

• +3 t/ha yr. CO2-eq GHG emissions reduced or sequestered

“Our CarbonSmart program encourages farmers to adopt sustainable agricultural practices. The adoption of these practices, combined with proven science and technology, allows our farmers to play a pivotal role in capturing and storing carbon, regenerating degraded soils, and improving overall soil health.”

Jacques Pretorius, UPL Corp Marketing and Business Development Manager – Southern Africa

UPL Corp is committed to reimagining sustainability, and we are proud of our new CarbonSmart program, its initial accomplishments, and future possibilities. We will continue to lead the way, so South Africa and its farmers realize the positive benefits of regenerative agriculture well into the future.