India’s First Soil Carbon Payments
Why in News?
India hit a historic environmental milestone by launching its first-ever direct soil carbon payments to farmers, transferring over ₹2.9 crore via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). Over 2,550 smallholder farmers in Punjab and Haryana received digital cash transfers for adopting climate-smart farming methods.
The Core Program: 'Aadi'
- The Drivers: The initiative is part of the 'Aadi' farmer carbon programme, launched in 2019 by private agronomy firm Grow Indigo with deep technical guidance from ICAR.
- Massive Scale: The entire project currently spans more than 2 million acres and supports over 100,000 farmers across seven Indian states.
- Methodology Used: The credits were evaluated, monitored, and independently verified using the strict, globally recognized Verra VM0042 methodology for improved agricultural land management.
Eco-Friendly Practices Adopted by Farmers
To generate these carbon credits between 2019 and 2022, the farmers transitioned to regenerative agriculture, which includes:
To generate these carbon credits between 2019 and 2022, the farmers transitioned to regenerative agriculture, which includes:
- Direct Seeded Rice (DSR): Sowing rice seeds directly into the field, bypassing the water-intensive nursery transplantation stage.
- Reduced or No Tillage: Limiting soil disturbance during land prep to keep organic carbon locked underground.
- Crop-Residue Management: Incorporating crop remains back into the soil instead of burning them.
How the Payment Structure Works?
- Performance-Based Income: Payments were distributed based on the actual verified volume of carbon credits generated from the specific field, rather than a flat, area-based acreage subsidy.
- Individual Earnings: This initial phase covered roughly 30,000 acres and generated over 50,000 carbon credits, allowing individual farmers to earn anywhere between ₹3,000 and ₹15,000.
- Flexible Payout Models: Grow Indigo funded the digital transfers immediately from its own reserves so farmers wouldn't have to wait for the final market sale of the credits. Farmers could choose between an assured upfront payment or keeping 75% of the net carbon revenue post-sale.
Scientific & Technological Backbone
- High-Tech Verification: The ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, deployed satellite remote-sensing data (such as Sentinel-2), crop-simulation modelling, and stringent soil-sampling protocols to accurately track carbon increases and methane drops.
- Cost Efficiency: Using this combined digital and satellite framework slashed verification expenses by up to 90% compared to traditional physical soil coring.
Measurable Environmental Impacts
- Water Conservation: The practices saved an estimated 45 billion litres of groundwater by avoiding traditional paddy flooding.
- Air Quality Control: More than 2 lakh tonnes of crop residue were kept out of open-air fires, preventing roughly 1,000 tonnes of toxic PM2.5 air pollution.
- Drop in Farm Fires: Backed by these incentives, government data logged only 5,114 farm-fire incidents in Punjab during the 2025 paddy harvesting season—marking a massive 93% reduction compared to 2021.
