India has disbursed its first soil-carbon payments to 2,550 farmers in Punjab and Haryana through Direct Benefit Transfer. The payments, totaling over Rs.2.9 crore, reward farmers who adopted practices like Direct Seeded Rice, reduced tillage, and crop residue management between 2019 and 2022. The carbon credits were issued under the Verra VM0042 methodology, with independent verification. Farmers received between Rs.3,000 and Rs.15,000 based on their share of the credits generated from their fields. The programme, called Aadi, is run by Grow Indigo with technical support from ICAR. It covers more than two million acres and over one lakh farmers across seven states. The first issuance covered around 30,000 acres and generated over 50,000 carbon credits. Grow Indigo made payments from its own funds before the credits were fully sold, offering farmers a choice between an assured upfront payment or 75% of net carbon revenue after sale. The programme also estimates savings of 45 billion litres of water and avoided over two lakh tonnes of crop residue burning, along with around 1,000 tonnes of PM2.5 emissions.
