Where will the dollars come from to fund that next conservation practice you want to implement on your farm? Your state department of agriculture might have just the answer — and resources — you need.

Many farmers are adapting and innovating – implementing conservation practices that build soil health and resilience, such as nutrient optimization, cover crops and no-till. Still, there is a growing need for farmers to understand the full financial benefits of these practices and prove their value to ag lenders and other financial partners.

The Perennial Fund works with farmers on the ground to help them expand their organic acreage by providing flexible capital, a carbon farm and business plan, and access to premium crop and carbon markets. By using a systemic approach of connecting capital, know-how and markets, we've built a readily scalable skin-in-the-game approach based upon the barriers to entry farmers face and ecological principles.

Dairy milk has a place in 94% of American households, yet U.S. dairy is in the fourth year of an economic downturn in which many farmers are struggling to break even. Dairy farmers are finally experiencing some price relief, but ongoing economic pressures are motivating them to become more resilient.

Emory University and The Conservation Fund have formed a new partnership to support next-generation farmers in Georgia and help build the local food supply across metro Atlanta with a first-of-its-kind sustainable solution to food production. Emory, the largest employer in Atlanta, is partnering with The Conservation Fund’s Working Farms Fund by agreeing to purchase locally sourced, fresh food from farmers entering the program.

Myint and Leibowitz’s efforts to give restaurants and their patrons a way to directly fund healthy soils is just one answer to a problem that many public and private initiatives are now grappling with: how to fund the shift from extractive to regenerative agriculture?

To pay for climate change solutions and lower the risk of transitioning to more sustainable practices, farmers will have to rely on financial incentives. In California, the money for those incentives is coming from the taxes the state imposes on polluters for the emissions they release; a coalition of groups has advocated for a portion of those funds to go to farmers who practice carbon farming. Over the next year, $12.5 million will go to support those efforts.

The Lab, an initiative of over 60 public and private investors and institutions, accelerates much-needed investment solutions to support developing countries to meet their climate change and sustainable development goals. Created in 2014, the Lab has now launched 41 instruments that have collectively mobilized nearly $2 billion for action on climate change and sustainable development.

Last month, Iroquois Valley Farmland began offering shares in the firm's 12-year-old real estate investment trust to investors with as little as $10,000, via a direct public offering. Previously, only wealthy individuals, foundations and family offices – so-called accredited investors – were eligible to invest.

States that embrace innovative new ways to finance on-farm conservation can deliver multiple benefits to farmers, state residents, taxpayers and the environment, according to a new report released at the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) Annual Meeting by NASDA and Environmental Defense Fund.