Google has signed a four-year agreement to purchase one million carbon credits from Indian climate technology startup Mitti Labs by 2030. The companies describe the transaction as the largest publicly announced deal for credits generated by reducing methane emissions in rice cultivation. The initiative will cover rice farms in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, reaching about 100,000 hectares at peak delivery.
Why Rice Farming Matters
Rice cultivation accounts for up to 12 percent of global methane emissions, making it a meaningful target for climate action. Methane has about 85 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period and breaks down in the atmosphere much faster. Addressing methane from rice therefore offers a powerful lever to limit near-term peak warming while the world continues long-term decarbonisation.
A Practical Farming Shift
Mitti Labs works directly with smallholder farmers to adopt Alternate Wetting and Drying, or AWD, rather than keeping rice fields continuously flooded. Farmers periodically drain and reflood their paddies, disrupting the oxygen-depleted soil conditions that produce methane. The practice reduces methane emissions by about 50 percent and irrigation water use by close to 40 percent without reducing crop yields.
Satellite-Based Measurement and Verification
The startup has built a GeoAI platform with support from NASA that combines high-resolution satellite radar with ground-truth data collected in the field. The system monitors crop health, soil moisture, and flooding status at the level of individual smallholder plots across large geographies. This measurement rigor has earned Mitti Labs a top rating from Sylvera, and credits can be issued under certification bodies such as Gold Standard or Isometric.
Water and Climate Benefits
By 2030 the partnership is expected to unlock 1.5 trillion liters of water savings across critical watersheds in India. That volume is roughly equivalent to three years of the entire water supply for Bengaluru. The project is also expected to eliminate three million tons of near-term warming impact under a 20-year global warming potential measure, equivalent to one million tons under the conventional 100-year measure.
Mitti Labs' Growing Footprint
Founded in 2023 and based in New York and Bengaluru, Mitti Labs has already helped save more than 500 billion liters of water through partnerships with Cool Effect, Ebro Foods, and Syngenta. The startup currently works with more than 100,000 farmers, channels a majority of project revenue to farming communities, and aims to reach millions by 2030. It plans to launch operations in the Philippines later this year and expand into Indonesia and other Southeast Asian markets in 2027.
Google's Broader Sustainability Push
The agreement supports Google's goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2030 at a time when its greenhouse gas emissions have increased due to investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure. Google said that if the credits are used to counterbalance emissions, they will be matched against shorter-lived emissions or replaced with carbon removals as their atmospheric impact expires. The deal follows other sustainability initiatives in India, including a biochar carbon removal agreement with Varaha and additional solar energy procurement.
The partnership provides a strong commercial signal that verified agricultural carbon credits can scale while delivering measurable environmental benefits. By combining methane abatement, water conservation, and direct payments to smallholder farmers, the model addresses both climate mitigation and resource resilience. Its expansion across India and planned entry into Southeast Asia could help transform how one of the world's most important staple crops is cultivated.