The Nature Conservancy (TNC), one of the world’s leading conservation organizations, and Tillable, an online marketplace for farmland rental, have teamed up to help farmers and their landowners more efficiently and cost-effectively adopt conservation agriculture practices.
 
Using cutting-edge digital technology, TNC and Tillable will be able to demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits of practices such as cover crops, no-till and crop rotation, while also offering farmers and their landowners a convenient way to evaluate and measure the impact of these practices.
 
“The Nature Conservancy has a long history of working with the agriculture community to adopt conservation practices that are good for business and good for the environment,” said Randy Dell, strategy manager for The Nature Conservancy’s North America Agriculture Program. “By collaborating with Tillable, we’re able to share our conservation principles and explore exciting new ways to help farmers and landowners implement and track practices that will benefit their bottom lines and have lasting impacts for climate change and water quality.” 
 
An estimated 62% of farmland in the Midwest is rented. Tillable aims to bring efficiency and transparency to this market by making it easy for landowners to take care of their farm lease, and helping farmers find more land to expand their growing operations. Through its online platform, Tillable tracks farm performance data and land stewardship activities to ensure the land is both productive and treated sustainably. 
 
“Our goal at Tillable is to empower farmers and landowners to make the best decisions to maximize the health and productivity of their farms,” said Corbett Kull, co-founder and CEO of Tillable. “Our collaboration with The Nature Conservancy provides farmers and landowners with the tools they need to apply sustainable and cost-effective solutions to issues like nutrient loss, soil erosion and greenhouse gas emissions.”
 
Specifically, the collaboration between TNC and Tillable will:
 

• Provide conservation metrics and a digital conservation dashboard for both farmers and landowners to evaluate and track changes in land management over time. 
• Explore opportunities to increase soil carbon storage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on leased farmland for use in emerging carbon credit programs.
• Engage farmland owners to improve the use of conservation practices on lands they operate.
• Demonstrate the Tillable platform on TNC owned and leased cropland. 
• Communicate about the work and its results to advance the conservation agriculture practices more broadly. 

 
“Landowners and their farmers have the power to transform the agriculture system, ensuring a healthier landscape for growing our food, safeguarding our drinking water supplies and creating a sustainable food system for a rapidly growing world,” said Dell. “Our collaboration with Tillable is an exciting next step in a long road to ensuring a healthier world for us all.”