Contents
Introduction
India contributes nearly 12% of global methane emissions, with rice cultivation a major source. According to FAO and IPCC, climate-smart practices and carbon markets can align farmer incomes with mitigation goals.
Carbon Credits and Methane Emissions in Rice Cultivation
- Rice agriculture and methane: Flooded paddy fields create anaerobic conditions that favour methanogenic microbes, releasing methane with 28 times the global warming potential of CO₂ (IPCC AR6). India, the world’s largest rice exporter, thus holds significant mitigation potential.
- Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD): AWD periodically dries fields, disrupting methane formation while conserving water. Studies by IRRI and recent field evidence from Telangana show 30–50% methane reduction, 35–40% water savings, and no yield penalty, making it a “low-effort, high-impact” intervention.
Carbon Credits as a Sustainable Revenue Stream
- Additional income: Methane abatement credits currently trade at $15–25 per tonne of CO₂ equivalent. With AWD reducing around 2–3 tonnes CO₂e per hectare per crop, farmers can earn ₹3,000–4,000 per hectare, supplementing volatile farm incomes.
- Climate-finance linkage: Carbon markets internalise environmental externalities, operationalising the “polluter pays” and “beneficiary pays” principles. Buyers such as airlines, data centres, and global corporations use these credits to meet net-zero commitments under ESG frameworks.
- Alignment with national goals: This supports India’s Nationally Determined Contributions, National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture, and LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) vision articulated by the President of India.
Inclusivity for Small and Marginal Farmers
- Structural advantage: Over 86% of Indian farmers are smallholders, often excluded from carbon markets due to scale constraints. Aggregation models led by FPOs, startups, and public-private partnerships help pool emission reductions and transaction costs.
- Co-benefits: AWD improves water-use efficiency, reduces irrigation costs, and enhances resilience in water-stressed regions like Telangana, Punjab, and eastern India, aligning with SDGs 2, 6, and 13.
Challenges in Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV)
- High transaction costs: Direct methane measurement using chambers, gas chromatography, and satellite validation is capital-intensive, potentially excluding marginal farmers without institutional support.
- Technical complexity: MRV requires geo-tagging, baseline estimation, additionality proof, permanence, and leakage control, as prescribed under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
- Standardisation deficit: Lack of harmonised methodologies across voluntary carbon markets risks double counting, greenwashing, and credibility loss, as flagged by reports of the Integrity Council for Voluntary Carbon Markets (ICVCM).
- Digital divide: Smallholders face barriers in data literacy, smartphone access, and awareness, undermining informed consent and equitable benefit-sharing.
Way Forward
- Public support for MRV: Government-backed MRV infrastructure through ICAR, ISRO remote sensing, and state agriculture departments can reduce costs and enhance trust.
- Farmer-centric aggregation: Strengthening FPO-led carbon pools ensures scale, bargaining power, and transparency.
- Regulatory clarity: A domestic compliance carbon market under India Carbon Market framework can provide price stability and legal certainty.
- Capacity building: Extension services must integrate climate literacy with agronomy to ensure informed participation.
Conclusion
As Justice P.N. Bhagwati emphasised social justice, climate markets must empower the weakest. Echoing IPCC and FAO, transparent MRV and farmer-first design can turn mitigation into rural opportunity.
