TRI, Intellecap and Rabobank launches Carbon Credit Finance Project in Jharkhand

This project ensures the continued care of trees beyond the support period of the BHGY project by aiding smallholder farmers in securing additional financial support from carbon markets.

Transform Rural India (TRI), in collaboration with Intellecap and ACORN (Rabobank), launched a pioneering Carbon Credit Finance Project benefiting over 100,000 farmers in Jharkhand.

This initiative targets all farmers in the state who have received support under the Birsa Harit Gram Yojana since 2018, facilitating their integration into the Rabobank ACORN platform. Predominantly women, these farmers have cultivated fruit orchards and local timber trees plantations across 100,000+ acres of rural land, with backing from the Government of Jharkhand under the Birsa Harit Gram Yojna (BHGY) of MGNREGA. These farmers will receive benefits for carbon removal over the next 15-20 years.

This project ensures the continued care of trees beyond the support period of the BHGY project by aiding smallholder farmers in securing additional financial support from carbon markets. Remarkably, this comes with no risk to the farmers or any required investment from them or the government. The project’s design inception began in December 2022, with the collaboration of implementation partners in support of the Jharkhand government.

Santosh K. Singh, Managing Director- Agri and Climate, Intellecap said, “We are committed to increasing smallholder farmers’ income and transitioning them to climate smart agriculture. By supporting Climate finance, specifically carbon finance, the project enables this transition to profitable and climate resilient agriculture practices. We also are looking at the ecosystem that is needed for achieving this and the platform works with government agencies, investors and corporates to help smallholder farmers.”

The project is founded on the principle of fair payment to farmers, wherein 80 per cent of the generated carbon credit revenue will be directly transferred to the farmers’ accounts. In addition to carbon credits, the partners will explore avenues to provide additional benefits to farmers through the Government of India Green Credit platform and other global biodiversity platforms. The project aims to ensure the proper maintenance of plantations, boost the income of smallholder farmers, and create local employment opportunities. Data collection and onboarding of BHGY farmers have already commenced, with over 150 farmers from the Bero and Angara blocks of the Ranchi district is under onboarding process. This project has got support from the Government of Jharkhand & Rural Development Department (GoJ).

Ashok Kumar, Director, Farm Prosperity, Transforming Rural India Foundation said, “At TRIF we are excited about this pioneering Carbon Credit Finance Project with ACORN and Intellecap to support over 1 Lakh women smallholder farmers with support from the Jharkhand Govt. This will ensure an increase in income of smallholder farmers as well as support the state’s active role in developing a climate action plan and taking necessary steps to tackle climate change. This project aims to be the guide and champion of smallholder farmers from Jharkhand for climate/ carbon finance.”

Earlier this year in January, Intellecap and Transform Rural India Foundation (TRIF) had developed the climate action platform to increase farmers’ income and build the resilience of their agricultural practices against the different aspects of climate change.

This project ensures the continued care of