Almost no farmer denies climate change - those who have lived on this earth for decades know that climate patterns have changed from the past. Changes range from differences in planting and harvesting dates to more frequent droughts and floods.

As a result, farmers had to learn to adapt to these changes. One such way is the introduction of precision farming, which allows more crops to be grown while using resources efficiently. But now precision farming can also enable farmers to mitigate the impact of climate change - reducing its impact on the planet. Mitigation is very important - no one wants to continue to experience droughts and floods, which are becoming more severe every decade. And the time has come - every year it becomes more difficult to deal with climate change and its many positive feedback loops.

The UN estimates that up to 8.6 gigatons of CO2 (over 20% of humankind's current greenhouse gas emissions) can be captured each year in a very modest place - carbon trapped in the soil. Carbon in the soil often comes from decomposition of roots and plant matter, and when this carbon is allowed to accumulate, the farm efficiently draws CO2 out of the atmosphere and captures it. In addition, as an added benefit, increasing the carbon content of the soil increases soil fertility - the soil accumulates nutrients more efficiently, retains moisture for longer and decreases its density. Experts such as Rotang Lalal have written for decades about the potential benefits of soil organic carbon, not only for fighting climate change, but also for soil health. It is also considered to be one of the cheapest carbon sequestration methods, accounting for a tiny fraction of the cost of direct air carbon capture technologies, which are the main focus of the mainstream media.

In a world where many large corporations promise to become carbon neutral or even carbon negative, it makes the most financial sense for them to invest in the cheapest methods so that they can continue to maintain their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders while pursuing their sustainability goals.

But where are we today? Why are we not seeing ubiquitous carbon sequestration in soil?

There are still a few key practical problems that remain to be solved, and I am listing some of them in descending order of complexity. For many of them, precision farming and digital technology can play a key role:

• Technical Due Diligence: There are many well-known methods for increasing soil organic carbon, such as no-till, cover crops, etc. But the actual impact of any of them depends on the farm and the particular farmer's practices. In addition, some of the other farmer's methods can actually reduce soil organic carbon, negating any benefits. So, to test if what the farmer is doing is actually working, we will need to measure soil carbon levels across the entire farm (not just one location) and be able to compare measurements over the years. When we remember that there are over 100 million farmers in the world, many of whom only cultivate a few acres of land, we quickly realize that typical ways of doing business (such as extensive soil sampling and testing for each individual farm) don't really work. ... to move the needle with climate change.
• Effective business models. In agricultural technology today, our business model often involves the sale of a product or service where the end user is the farmer and the farmer is also the end payer. The ability to pay for farmers around the world is small compared to the resources of consumers in other sectors, and often depends on complete proof to each individual farmer that your technology works and can improve their performance. Thus, in the current model, it is not clear how we could create a sustainable business that encompasses a significant proportion of the world's farmers. It may be time for agrotechnics to fundamentally rethink this business model and offer a more efficient one that can scale much faster.
• Acquisition of farmers on a global scale. Finally, once we figure out the technical and business model aspects, the bigger question is how to actually reach the many millions of farmers. As we all know, farmers are very geographically dispersed, which makes true virality very difficult. Many large agribusinesses have spent decades building their distribution networks to reach farmers on a large enough scale. But we don't have decades to spend on increasing soil carbon sequestration to actually make an impact. This should happen now.
• In the context of modern digital technologies, agricultural technology now also has the opportunity to rethink how farmer engagement works to reach millions of farmers much faster.
• To date, there are several initiatives that have tried to solve small aspects of this big puzzle. But unless we tackle all of these major challenges, carbon sequestration in soil will not offset climate change and improve the lives of large numbers of farmers.

It is in this context that my own company, ConserWater, is launching the world's first international soil carbon marketplace where corporations and governments can buy carbon credits and where farmers are interested in increasing soil carbon. I now believe that technology and business development has finally come to a critical point in addressing these three major challenges.

Climate change is an issue that will significantly affect human development over the next few decades. We all and every sector of the industry must play an active role in both mitigating and adapting to them - agricultural technology is no exception.