Brave New World of Carbon Farming
The agriculture carbon trading market in India is relatively at a nascent stage. With Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI)’s proposed collaborations with GrowIndigo India Ltd, to build a marketplace for trading in carbon credits for farmers, will give fillip to the carbon trading segment. Private players such as Agoro Carbon Alliance and nurture.farm have forayed into the carbon trading segment to enable Indian farmers to generate a sustainable income from carbon cropping and to create direct market linkages in India. Industry is hoping that with the government’s direct intervention in policy making for carbon trading and increasing awareness about the advantages of carbon farming farmers will pave a way for future growth of the carbon trading sector.
After the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) about disastrous consequences of environmental factors on Indian agriculture, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) will join hands with GrowIndigo India Ltd for the first time to build a marketplace for trading in carbon credits for farmers in the country. “GrowIndigo India Ltd”, which is a collaborative effort between leading agriculture firm Mahyco and Indigo Ag, is executing a project with the IARI and International Wheat and Maize Improvement Centre (CIMMYT). Both IARI and CIMMYT will provide research and science based support to this initiative.
Agri carbon trading market in India
The agriculture carbon trading market in India is relatively at nascent stage but it exhibits a fast pace of growth with forays of private players in the last two years. As per recent reports, India’s carbon trading market ranked as second-highest transacted volumes globally by generating 30 million carbon credits. India is the third-largest carbon emitter accounting for 2.46 billion metric tonnes. The agriculture sector contributes to 25 per cent of carbon emissions due to chemical fertiliser and pesticides, stubble burning, crop nitrogen and methane emission in livestock, etc. According to NITI Aayog India can benefit from carbon trading worth $50-60 billion by adopting sustainable farming and agro-ecological approaches. India has established the first exchange in Asia known as Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) to trade carbon credits. At present, companies that meet the UNFCCC norms will be entitled to sell carbon credits at this exchange platform.
Presently Grow Indigo (a subsidiary of Mahyco, India) and Indigo Ag are working in partnership with farmers of Punjab, Haryana, and Maharashtra to enable farmers earn carbon credits by assisting in sequestering carbon, covering nearly 1,000 acres. The farms are being geo-tagged and monitored using remote sensing throughout the crop cycle, and soil tests are being conducted at regular intervals to measure carbon credits.
In India, with commercial operations across four continents, Agoro Carbon Alliance aims to decarbonise farming and restore carbon to the world’s soil by implementing technologically advanced carbon cropping practices. Agoro Carbon Alliance will enable Indian farmers to generate an additional, sustainable income from carbon cropping while maintaining or even increasing crop yields. Agoro Carbon puts Indian farmers at the centre of the solution by incentivising and enabling them to change practices and connecting them to the growing number of businesses that are looking to achieve their climate pledges.
Agoro aims to foray into the next major planetary-scale agricultural revolution with farmers spearheading the approach locally. It will provide state-of-the-art digital connectivity to millions of Indian farmers, enabling hyperlocal and granular decision support mechanisms. The platform will further create direct market linkages and enable the discovery of the local grower globally.
While commenting on inputs required for the growth of the agriculture carbon trading sector in India, Prithviraj Sen Sharma, Managing Director, Agoro Carbon Alliance India, said, “Indian growers have great potential for carbon farming. In the current scenario, demonstration of carbon farming and regenerative farming practices has become a crucial area to work for the companies. To be able to convince and sensitise the small scale farmers about the advantages of carbon farming and its monetary benefits needs to be addressed. Sensitising the market about the importance of agriculture carbon credit trading is one of the steps required for the growth of the carbon trading sector. Industry needs more direct intervention from the Government in mobilising the change in the carbon trading sector.”
nurture.farm, a digital platform for sustainable agriculture, has become the first company to successfully generate and forward sell agricultural-related carbon credits in India. nurture.farm’s Alternate Wetting and Drying & Dry Seeded Rice (AWD-DSR) project covered 22,000 acres of rice paddy fields and involved over 2,500 smallholder farmers. 20,000 carbon credits were derived from this AWD-DSR project. Its benefits included 15 per cent to 30 per cent of water savings.
Another 120,000 credits are under process from the Crop Residue Management (CRM) Programme. The CRM Programme empowered over 25,000 farmers to prevent 420,000 acres of farmland being burnt, thereby preventing the generation of 2,135 tonnes of particulate matter, including PM 2.5 and PM 10 particulate matter.
nurture.farm’s AWD-DSR programme is now being submitted to a global validation agency, and in two quarters’ time to the Verified Carbon Standard (Verra) for final verification and credit generation. The CRM Programme will follow suit, with submission to the validation agency in the next quarter. nurture.farm has set a target to help Indian farmers generate one million carbon credits by 2023, thereby being the leading supplier of nature-based carbon credits in India.
Dhruv Sawhney, Business Head and COO of nurture.farm, said, “India is well-placed to pioneer agriculture-related carbon credit trading. As the first agriculture company to successfully generate and forward-sell carbon credits in India, we are unlocking new opportunities and outcomes for farming communities and setting the bar for our industry as a whole. Demand for credible carbon credits from the voluntary carbon markets can drive massive shifts to sustainable agricultural practices across India and the rest of the world. We look forward to working with more farming communities this year as we scale up our CRM and AWD-DSR programmes – making farmers more resilient by securing better yields, improved soil health, and enhanced livelihoods.”
nurture.farm is currently developing protocols for verifying traceable carbon credits through its online platform and will use block chain technology to trade credits on carbon markets. During the course of 2022, nurture.farm will also establish a common carbon credits registry and trading platform, which utilises a standardised methodology to simplify traceability and make verification easier.
During the last cropping season (Rabi), nurture.farm expanded the AWD-DSR programme across an additional 120,000 acres. The company plans to create more carbon credits by further extending its projects. In 2022, nurture.farm’s CRM Programme will cover at least one million acres, while it will scale up its AWD-DSR project to 180,000 acres.
Bayer has established a pilot project in 2021 across 10 states in India to help rice farmers adopt sustainable practices and get paid for the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions they avoided through carbon credits. Importantly, this initiative supports the expansion of regenerative agriculture, improves natural resource management and supports farmer productivity and livelihoods. The pilot has targeted around 3000 hectares across diverse states across the country.
Bayer has started rewarding farmers in Brazil and the U.S. for generating carbon credits by adopting climate-smart practices – such as no-till farming and the use of cover crops – designed to help agriculture reduce its carbon footprint and GHG emissions. Bayer’s industry-leading carbon Initiative is the result of years of work validating a science-based approach and methodology to make this happen. It recognises the pivotal role growers and their land can play in helping to create lasting, positive environmental impacts. The initiative makes Bayer the first company to develop a transparent, science-based and collaborative approach to a carbon market in agriculture.
Long way to go
The agriculture carbon trading market in India is relatively at a nascent stage. With IARI’s proposed collaborations with GrowIndigo India Ltd, to build a marketplace for trading in carbon credits for farmers will give fillip Carbon trading segment. Private players such as Agoro Carbon Alliance and nurture.farm have forayed into the Carbon trading segment to enable Indian farmers to generate a sustainable income from carbon cropping and to create direct market linkages in India. Industry is hoping that with the government’s direct intervention in policy making for carbon trading and increasing awareness about the advantages of carbon farming farmers will pave a way for future growth of the carbon trading sector.
Dipti Barve
dipti.barve@mmactiv.com
The agriculture carbon trading market in India
