Methane-Reducing Rice Farming

Methane-reducing rice farming is scaling across India through a five-year carbon credit agreement between Google and Mitti Labs. The partnership will transition more than 70,000 smallholder farmers across 100,000 hectares to alternate irrigation practices that can cut methane emissions from rice fields by up to 50% while reducing irrigation volumes by nearly 40%. Mitti Labs uses its GeoAI platform, combining satellite radar data with field observations to monitor soil moisture, flooding, and crop conditions at individual plots.

Google’s carbon credit commitment provides financial support for expanding these practices while giving Mitti Labs a pathway to scale its technology and field operations. The model could help farmers conserve water without sacrificing yields while generating measurable carbon credits for corporate buyers. Expanding satellite-based monitoring could also make large agricultural emissions-reduction programs easier to verify and replicate across additional rice-growing regions.