Google has agreed with Indian climate startup Mitti Labs to purchase one million carbon credits through 2030, in a deal the two companies say is the largest announced to date for credits generated by reducing methane emissions from rice farming. The project covers farms in the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, with the targeted area expected to reach about 100,000 hectares when deliveries peak.
The companies did not disclose the financial value of the agreement. Farmers will receive incentives to reduce the length of time their rice fields are flooded, a practice intended to reduce methane released during cultivation while also lowering irrigation-water consumption. Mitti Labs says the approach can reduce methane emissions by about 50% and water consumption by about 40% without reducing crop yields.
An Agricultural Project Supported by Geospatial Monitoring
Mitti Labs, which was founded in 2023 and has operations in New York and Bengaluru, relies on a GeoAI platform that combines synthetic-aperture radar imagery from commercial and public satellites with field measurements. The platform uses this data to remotely monitor crop growth, soil moisture, and flooding levels on small farms, with accuracy ranging from 50 centimeters to 10 meters depending on the image source.
According to what TechCrunch reported from co-founder Xavier Laguarta, Google's review of the project's technologies included examining monitoring systems and conducting field visits to farms before the agreement was signed. The credits generated by the project may be issued through Gold Standard or Isometric, with the projects subject to independent third-party verification before the credits are issued.
Why Does This Agreement Matter?
The deal comes as Google seeks to reach net-zero emissions by 2030, while its greenhouse-gas emissions increased in 2025 by 18% year over year to about 14.5 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent, according to its environmental report issued in June. The agreement adds to the company's portfolio a project that links methane reductions with water conservation, rather than focusing exclusively on carbon-removal or clean-energy projects.
Mitti Labs says its projects saved more than 500 billion liters of water over the past two years, and that the majority of its project revenues go to farming communities. However, the company has not specified how much participating farmers in Google's project will receive, an important point for assessing the deal's actual economic impact on smallholders.
Expansion and Open Constraints
Mitti Labs currently works with more than 100,000 farmers and aims to reach millions of farmers by 2030. It also plans to launch operations in the Philippines during the current year, followed by expansion into Indonesia and other Southeast Asian markets in 2027. The company points out that about 150 million farmers grow rice in India, Southeast Asia, and China, providing broad scope for methane-reduction projects.
However, the current agreement remains limited to India, and its financial value and the distribution of returns to farmers have not been disclosed. The editorial reading of certi.news is that the deal's importance lies not only in the number of credits, but in testing whether a model based on observable agricultural changes can reach tens of thousands of hectares. Measurement and verification quality, as well as transparency regarding returns to farmers, will remain decisive factors in assessing the impact of the credits Google will purchase.