Indonesia's Agriculture Minister Regulation No. 18/2026 sets the rules for carbon trading through agricultural GHG offset projects. It covers rice cultivation, livestock, and plantations, and requires project developers to set up benefit-sharing agreements with at least three farmer institutions near the project site. Those agreements need free, prior and informed consent, and should distribute benefits based on land area, emissions reduced, or carbon units generated. The regulation creates a pathway to an Agricultural GHG Emission Reduction Certificate (SPE GRK) through the national carbon registry (SRUK). Projects must register a mitigation action design document, get it assessed by the agriculture ministry within 30 days, then use accredited independent validators and verifiers. The rules also cover cross-sector work like agroforestry, biochar, and biogas, and ban double counting of the same emissions reductions. For carbon market watchers, the interesting part is how the benefit-sharing and verification requirements play out in practice. Farmers can also develop projects independently or through cooperatives, which could change who captures value from ag carbon credits in Indonesia.
