Bengaluru – September 15, 2026 -- Mitti Labs will supply Google with one million high-integrity carbon credits by 2030 under the largest rice methane offtake agreement to date, a five-year deal covering 100,000 hectares of smallholder rice farms across India.
Deal converts 70,000 farmers to methane-cutting irrigation methods
The agreement will transition more than 70,000 farmers to water- and methane-saving irrigation practices, targeting elimination of 3 million tons of near-term warming impact measured on a GWP20 basis, equivalent to 1 million tons under GWP100 metrics. Rice paddies under continuous flooding account for more than 10% of global methane emissions, according to Mitti Labs.
Alternate irrigation cuts methane by half while preserving yields
Mitti Labs' model combines farmer engagement with satellite radar technology to shift paddies to alternate wetting and drying irrigation, cutting up to 50% of methane emissions from rice fields and reducing irrigation volumes by nearly 40% without reducing rice yields. The partnership is projected to save billions of liters of water nationally, an amount equivalent to three years of Bengaluru's annual water supply.
Google cites near-term methane cuts as climate priority
Kate Brandt, Chief Sustainability Officer at Google, said the company is focused on solutions that address both near- and long-term warming, citing Mitti Labs' capacity to cut methane emissions while conserving water and supporting smallholder farmers.
GeoAI platform maps individual smallholder plots via satellite radar
Developed with NASA support, Mitti Labs' GeoAI platform fuses high-resolution satellite radar data with field-collected ground truth to generate insights on crop health, soil moisture, and flooding at the resolution of individual smallholder plots. The company plans to expand this platform into 'digital twin' datasets covering millions of rice fields globally.
Sylvera rates Mitti Labs' methane credits 'A' for measurement rigor
Since launching in 2023, Mitti Labs has scaled into the largest alternate irrigation program globally and received an 'A' rating from ratings agency Sylvera for its methane-based credits. The company's programs have cumulatively saved 500 billion liters of water to date, matching Bengaluru's annual supply. Mitti Labs counts Cool Effect, Ebro Foods, and Syngenta among its customers, and has raised $12.5 million from investors including Lightspeed India, Aramco Ventures, and Godrej Industries Group.