Tech giant Google has agreed to purchase one million carbon credits from Indian startup Mitti Labs to offset methane emissions from rice farming.
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As one of the world’s staple grains, rice cultivation accounts for approximately 12 percent of methane emissions worldwide. Unfortunately, its presence in every kitchen cabinet also means that reducing the crop’s carbon footprint is no simple task.
This is where Mitti Labs can make a difference.
The startup works with rice farmers in India to help them adopt climate-friendly farming practices. Specifically, Mitti Labs instructs farmers on the technique of Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), a method that involves letting rice fields periodically dry. This alternative technique reduces the amount of time rice paddies remain flooded, a process that introduces oxygen into the soil and thus disrupts the conditions needed for methane-making microbes to produce the potent greenhouse gas.
The approach cuts down on water consumption by about 40 percent and slashes methane emissions by around 50 percent––all while maintaining the same crop yields.
Under its new partnership with Google, Mitti labs will pay participating farmers to transition from traditional rice farming practices to AWD in the Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. It will also provide smallholder farmers with the training and support to achieve reductions while monitoring results in near real-time using satellite data and field measurements.
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The initiative will cover approximately 247,000 acres of land and affect more than 70,000 farmers. One million carbon credits will be generated over the four-year agreement, the largest ever deal of its kind, Google said in an announcement on September 10.
The deal is part of Google’s broader net-zero agenda. As major technology players invest heavily in energy-intensive AI infrastructure, companies are increasingly looking for ways to address the resulting emissions.
Innovative, data-driven startups like Mitti Labs are helping the world’s leading companies tackle those emissions while providing rural farming communities in India with the tools to reduce their environmental impact while boosting their incomes.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.