India’s 1st Soil Carbon Payments Initiative:
India’s agricultural carbon market reached the farm level as more than 2,500 smallholder farmers in Punjab and Haryana received digital payments for adopting regenerative agricultural practices under the ‘Aadi’ farmer carbon programme.
- The ‘Aadi’ programme was launched in 2019 by Grow Indigo with technical guidance from Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to link sustainable farming practices with additional farmer income.
- Farmers adopted regenerative practices such as Direct Seeded Rice (DSR), reduced tillage, and crop residue management between 2019 and 2022 to improve soil health and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
- Farmers received payments based on their share of carbon credits generated from their fields, with the first payments ranging between ₹3,000 and ₹15,000.
- The greenhouse-gas reductions and increases in soil carbon were scientifically measured and independently verified before carbon credits were issued under the Verra VM0042 methodology.
- The initiative covers over two million acres and more than 100,000 farmers across seven states, making it one of India’s major agricultural carbon programmes.
- The programme estimates that regenerative practices helped save 45 billion litres of water, prevented more than two lakh tonnes of crop residue burning, and avoided around 1,000 tonnes of PM2.5 emissions.
- The initiative connects scientific research, carbon markets, and farmer incentives, showing how regenerative agriculture can support higher farmer incomes, soil improvement, resource conservation, and climate-resilient farming.
