Why in the News?
More than 2,500 farmers in Punjab and Haryana are set to receive over ₹2.9 crore through digital payments for adopting regenerative agriculture practices. The initiative marks a link between measured soil-carbon gains, carbon credits and additional farmer income.
Key Highlights
- 2,550 farmers from Punjab and Haryana received Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).
- Programme: ‘Aadi’, a Grow Indigo farmer carbon programme launched in 2019 with technical guidance from ICAR.
- Practices adopted during 2019-2022:
- Direct Seeded Rice (DSR)
- Reduced/minimum tillage
- Crop-residue management
- Resulting greenhouse-gas reductions and soil-carbon increases were measured and independently verified.
- Carbon credits were issued under Verra VM0042 methodology.
- Programme covers:
- 2 million+ acres
- 1 lakh+ farmers
- 7 states
How Does Soil Carbon Payment Work?
Sustainable farming practice → Measurement of GHG reduction/soil carbon → Independent verification → Carbon credits → Sale/issuance → Farmer payment
- Farmers are paid according to their share of carbon credits generated from their fields.
- First issuance covered around 30,000 acres and 50,000+ carbon credits.
- Participating farmers received approximately ₹3,000-₹15,000.
- Grow Indigo made payments from its own funds before the credits were fully sold.
- Farmers could choose:
- Assured upfront payment, or
- 75% of net carbon revenue after credit sale.
Environmental Benefits
For enrolled fields during 2019-2022, the programme estimates:
- 45 billion litres of water saved
- More than 2 lakh tonnes of crop residue kept out of fires
- Around 1,000 tonnes of PM2.5 emissions avoided
