The Carbon Farming Futures program was about ensuring that advances in land management technologies and techniques for emissions reduction and adaptation will lead to enhanced productivity and sustainable land use under a changing climate. These advances were seen to be able to allow farmers and land managers to benefit from the economic opportunities of the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) while assisting Australia in achieving its long term emission reduction targets .

The Carbon Farming Initiative was a voluntary carbon abatement scheme that ran between September 2011 and December 2014 when it was integrated with the Emissions Reduction Fund – projects automatically became Emissions Reduction Fund projects.

The Australian Government repealed the Carbon Tax with effect from 1 July 2014. Through its Direct Action Plan, the government planned to introduce a mix of new policies, including the Emissions Reduction Fund which was intended to build on the existing Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) and provide ongoing opportunities for farmers and land managers to participate in emission reduction projects. It was noted that Extension and Outreach projects already funded under the Carbon Farming Futures program would continue to support the communication of opportunities under the CFI, and the transition to the Emissions Reduction Fund.

The Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) is a voluntary scheme that aimed to provide incentives for a range of organisations and individuals to adopt new practices and technologies to reduce their emissions. It is enacted through the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011, the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Regulations 2011 and the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Rule 2015 .

Through the Extension and Outreach component of the Carbon Farming Futures program the Australian Government invested funding from 2011–12 to 2016–17 to assist farmers and land managers to participate in land sector emissions reduction activities and the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI). In April 2013, 24 projects valued at $21.3 million were funded under the Extension and Outreach program to deliver information that is clear, consistent and current to farmers, land managers and their key influencers using a mix of traditional and new extension services.

The Carbon farming in the Australian cotton industry project aimed to integrate the latest information on carbon, climate change and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions management into the cotton industry’s extension efforts. This will be done by up-skilling industry information providers, incorporating information into the myBMP web portal tool (an online farm management tool for cotton growers) and developing cotton specific carbon farming communication campaigns .

This project funds the contract for Coutts J&R to review the achievements and impact of the Carbon Farming in the Australian Cotton industry

The cotton industry led with over a decade of industry investment in emissions research, a strong commitment to improvement through industry Best Management Practices (BMP) and a dedicated cotton Development and Delivery team. Reducing emissions and optimising sequestration on farm was seen to have been hampered by a lack of technical capacity in the integration of the various sciences, practical farm management, the policy context and economics. This project was seen to fit this need.

The intention was to encourage cotton and grain growers to understand, assess and reduce emissions from their cropping systems, optimise carbon sequestration in the landscape and participate in the carbon farming initiative.