Company’s first five projects will cover 30,000 hectares and will deliver an annual reduction of 120,000 metric tonnes of CO2e emissions.
Mitti Labs, a pioneering tech-enabled project developer, has announced the initiation of its first projects aimed at transforming rice farming in South Asia. Working alongside the Syngenta Foundation, Ebro Foods and Dr Reddy’s Foundation, the company has launched five rice projects across India which will reduce methane emissions, increase water security and build farmer resilience.
Mitti Lab’s first five projects will cover 30,000 hectares and will deliver an annual reduction of 120,000 metric tonnes of CO2e emissions. The emissions reduction will generate high-quality credits that help to diversify credit buyers’ portfolios, as well as making a significant positive impact on water scarcity and farmer livelihoods within the region. The company’s projects are expected to expand to cover 200,000 hectares over the next two years.
To deliver these projects, Mitti Labs is working alongside more than 40,000 smallholder farmers to embed and measure more sustainable agricultural practices. Alongside the environmental benefits of the projects, the work will increase the financial resilience of participating rice farmers, who earn the majority of revenue from each carbon credit sold, increasing their annual incomes by up to 30 per cent.
India is the world’s second largest rice producer, but the country faces significant threats to the livelihoods of rice farmers from the effects of climate change. Mitti Labs launched in India to tackle this. The company’s 120-person operations team works with on-the-ground community partners to activate grassroots networks and train participating farmers in new agricultural techniques that can reduce methane emissions by 50 per cent and water consumption by 30 per cent.
Xavi Laguarta, co-founder at Mitti Labs, commented: “We embarked on this journey with the belief that every climate problem is a climate solution. Our goal is to transform traditional rice farming, changing both the environmental footprint of rice and the lives of farmers who are already battling extreme climate-induced drought. We can’t ignore methane in the quest for net zero, and this means driving finance straight to the source, to help farmers adapt their agricultural techniques to a changing climate. We’re working closely with farmers and partner organizations to build confidence in a new type of rice farming, and a new type of carbon credit.”
The successful launch of Mitti Labs’ first five projects is just the start. The company has 10 more projects in the pipeline and, by the end of 2025, plans to mitigate 360,000 tonnes of CO2e per year whilst expanding geographically across Southeast Asia. This ambitious strategy will be supported by a planned funding round in early 2025.
