Soil organic carbon enhancement projects are a mixed reduction-and-removal project type within the agriculture & soils segment of the carbon market. They are designed to increase soil organic carbon and may also reduce non-CO2 agricultural emissions. The carbon benefit comes from increased soil carbon stocks and, in some methods, lower CH4/N2O emissions from new practices. Common project configurations include Cover crops; reduced tillage; residue management; grazing changes; compost additions where methodology allows.

Small annual changes in soil carbon can add up over large acreages, but they are also difficult to measure with confidence at low cost. These projects are appealing because they connect climate outcomes with soil health and farm resilience, but measurement, durability, and attribution can be more complex than in highly engineered pathways. For buyers and program designers, the most important diligence questions are: How are baselines, sampling, model uncertainty, permanence, and farmer practice adoption handled?