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Improved Cropland Management - Lithuania
The project is a large-scale, farmer-led soil carbon and regenerative agriculture initiative that transforms conventional cropland into climate-positive, biodiversity-enhancing landscapes. Covering nearly 19,600 hectares across Lithuania, the project combines verified carbon removals with direct financial incentives, agronomic support, and cutting-edge monitoring technologies. Its unique strength lies in aligning farmer livelihoods with long-term ecosystem restoration, delivering measurable climate action while improving soil health, farm resilience, and rural economic stability at the national scale.
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Project information
Transforming Lithuania’s croplands with climate-smart farming
Implemented across nine counties in Lithuania, the Carbon Farming Program addresses climate change and land degradation through improved agricultural land management on croplands. The project responds to key regional drivers of change: intensive tillage, monocropping, excessive synthetic fertiliser use, soil organic carbon loss, and declining farm profitability.
By supporting farmers to transition toward regenerative practices, such as reduced tillage, residue retention, diversified crop rotations, and reduced synthetic inputs, the project increases soil organic carbon stocks while lowering nitrous oxide and fossil fuel emissions. The program’s significance lies in its integrated model: farmers receive training, technical assistance, and access to innovative financing, while carbon revenues provide an additional income stream. This approach enables a long-term shift toward climate-resilient, biodiversity-friendly agriculture, delivering environmental, social and economic benefits at scale within the Baltic region.
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Intervention
Improved Agricultural Land Management
Location
Lithuania
Standard
Verified Carbon Standard (VCS)
Credit Type
Carbon Avoidance & Removal
Sustainable Goals
Project performance
The Earthly rating
The Earthly rating is the industry-first holistic project assessment. Earthly researchers analyse 106 data points, aggregating information across the three vital pillars of carbon, biodiversity and people. Projects in Earthly's marketplace all exceed a minimum score of 5/10.
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Carbon
138,000+
tCO2e reduced or removed between 2020 and 2023
Biodiversity
19,500+
hectares of agricultural land under regenerative management practices.
Social
€1.46M
zero-interest loans are issued to participating farmers.
Project impact
Local impact
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Positive for people
The Carbon Farming Program delivers tangible social and economic benefits for farmers and rural communities. By providing access to agronomic expertise, training, and continuous technical support, the project empowers farmers to adopt sustainable practices while maintaining farm productivity. Financial barriers, one of the main obstacles to regenerative agriculture, are addressed through innovative financing mechanisms, including zero-interest “Green Loans.”
Participation in the program also creates an additional income stream through the sale of verified carbon units, improving long-term financial resilience. Health and wellbeing benefits arise from reduced exposure to synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, with several farms fully eliminating chemical inputs. Improved water quality benefits local communities by lowering pollution risks to groundwater and surface waters.
The project follows strict safeguards on labour rights, gender equity, and stakeholder engagement. Participation is voluntary, inclusive, and compliant with EU labour and human rights standards. Regular consultations, farm visits, and feedback mechanisms ensure transparency and adaptive project design.
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Good for earth
The project tackles key biodiversity and ecosystem drivers linked to conventional agriculture, including soil degradation, nutrient pollution, erosion, and loss of soil biological activity. Core actions include reduced and no-tillage practices, permanent soil cover through residue retention and cover crops, diversified crop rotations, and reduced application of synthetic fertilisers.
These measures improve soil structure, enhance microbial diversity, and increase populations of earthworms and fungi, strengthening below-ground biodiversity. Increased soil organic carbon enhances nutrient cycling, water retention, and erosion resistance, while reduced fertiliser use lowers nutrient runoff into rivers, aquifers, and the Baltic Sea, one of the most eutrophication-impacted marine ecosystems globally.
The project employs robust safeguards to prevent ecosystem conversion, excluding any land with recent deforestation, wetlands, peatlands, or high forest cover using GIS and satellite-based verification. Monitoring confirms no negative impacts on rare or endangered species, as activities occur solely on existing agricultural land.
How we assess for quality
The Earthly scoring process
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