First Soil-Carbon Payments Released to 2,550 Farmers Through DBT

New Delhi, Sep 17 (KNN) More than Rs.2.9 crore in soil-carbon payments is being disbursed to 2,550 farmers in Punjab and Haryana under a farmer carbon programme. The first payments were released through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) at a programme held at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana.

Dr. M. L. Jat, Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), initiated the DBT to the farmers.

The payments are part of ‘Aadi’, a Grow Indigo farmer carbon programme launched in 2019 with technical guidance from ICAR. Between 2019 and 2022, participating farmers adopted Direct Seeded Rice (DSR), reduced tillage and crop-residue management practices.

The greenhouse-gas reductions and increases in soil carbon resulting from these practices were measured and independently verified before carbon credits were issued. The programme has issued agricultural carbon credits under the Verra VM0042 methodology.

The programme covers more than two million acres and over one lakh farmers across seven states. Its first carbon-credit issuance covered around 30,000 acres and more than 50,000 carbon credits. Participating farmers received approximately Rs.3,000 to Rs.15,000.

Payments were calculated according to each farmer’s share of the carbon credits generated from their fields. Grow Indigo released the payments digitally from its own funds before the credits were fully sold. Farmers could choose between an assured upfront payment and 75 per cent of the net carbon revenue after the credits were sold.

For fields enrolled during 2019-2022, the programme estimates savings of 45 billion litres of water and more than two lakh tonnes of crop residue kept out of fires. It also estimates that around 1,000 tonnes of PM2.5 emissions were avoided.

Farmers who joined the programme after 2022 are part of the next monitoring cycle and will receive payments as their carbon credits are issued.

ICAR institutions, including ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, contributed to greenhouse-gas accounting, crop-simulation modelling, soil-sampling protocols, device validation, field-team training and satellite and remote-sensing processes. 

Grow Indigo is also working with ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ATARI), Zone 1, on regenerative agriculture.

(KNN Bureau)