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India's agricultural carbon market has reached the farm: more than 2,500 smallholders in Punjab and Haryana are receiving over Rs 2.9 crore in digital payments for adopting regenerative farming practices.
The Direct Benefit Transfer to 2,550 farmers was initiated at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana by Dr M. L. Jat, Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education and Director General, ICAR.
The payments come under 'Aadi', a Grow Indigo farmer carbon programme launched in 2019 with technical guidance from ICAR, which rewards Direct Seeded Rice, reduced tillage and crop residue management practised between 2019 and 2022.
Credits were issued under Verra's VM0042 methodology after independent verification; the first issuance covered about 30,000 acres and more than 50,000 carbon credits.
Reduced tillage, direct seeding and residue retention leave more organic carbon in the soil and cut methane and burning emissions. That gain is measured, independently verified against a methodology, and issued as tradable carbon credits, so income follows a verified outcome rather than an input subsidy.
Simple Analogy: The field becomes a savings account, and the farmer is paid for the carbon deposited in it.
Create India's own compliance carbon market - the Indian Carbon Market - issuing carbon credit certificates for verified emission reductions.
Key: Notified on 28 June 2023 under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001 as amended by the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022, which came into force on 1 January 2023. Administered by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency under the Ministry of Power - not by the environment ministry.
Reward voluntary environmental action such as tree plantation, water management and waste management with tradable green credits.
Key: Green Credit Rules notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on 12 October 2023. Green credits are distinct from carbon credits: they reward the activity itself, not a quantified tonne of carbon dioxide.
Promote chemical-free natural farming in mission mode for safe and nutritious food.
Key: Approved by the Union Cabinet on 25 November 2024 as a standalone Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare, outlay Rs 2,481 crore (Centre Rs 1,584 crore, States Rs 897 crore); targets 15,000 clusters, 1 crore farmers and 7.5 lakh hectares.
Cut stubble burning in the paddy belt by subsidising machinery that mixes residue back into the soil.
Key: Central Sector Scheme on Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi, running from 2018-19; 80% assistance for Farm Machinery Banks set up by cooperative societies, FPOs, SHGs and registered farmer groups, and 50% to an individual farmer.
Take scientists to the village before the Kharif season to spread region-specific technologies and collect farmer feedback.
Key: Launched on 29 May 2025 at Bhubaneswar, Odisha, drawing on all 731 Krishi Vigyan Kendras and 113 ICAR institutes. The Union Agriculture Minister's Punjab visits referred to in this release were part of this campaign.
Apex body coordinating agricultural, horticultural, fisheries and animal-science research and education; established 16 July 1929 as the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research on the Royal Commission on Agriculture's recommendation, registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
The department of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare under which ICAR sits as an autonomous body; the same officer holds both Secretary, DARE and Director General, ICAR.
India's third-oldest agricultural university, modelled on the United States land-grant system; called the mother of the Green Revolution for the varieties and practices it supplied.
Non-profit standard-setter that runs the Verified Carbon Standard, the world's most widely used voluntary greenhouse-gas crediting programme; its VM0042 methodology quantifies emission reductions and soil organic carbon removals from improved agricultural land management.
The private implementing partner - a 2018 joint venture of Indigo Ag (United States) and Mahyco Grow, running carbon farming programmes for smallholders and the first in India approved for credit issuance under VM0042.
Paddy expansion after the Green Revolution, led from PAU Ludhiana, is why Punjab's water table is a policy problem; DSR reduces irrigation rounds and so attacks the cause rather than the symptom.
Credits here are voluntary and bought by private parties. The compliance Indian Carbon Market being built under the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, 2023 is the separate track designed to carry legal obligations.
GS Paper 3 > Agriculture and Environment > Carbon Markets, Cropping Patterns
General Awareness > Schemes and Institutions
General Awareness > Agriculture and Rural Economy
Consider the following statements: Statement I: Article 6 of Paris Agreement... frequently discussed... Statement II: Article 6... sets out principles of carbon markets. Statement III: Article 6... intends to promote inter-country non-market strategies... Which one of the following is correct...?
Answer: Both Statement II and Statement III are correct...
Consider the following statements regarding carbon markets in India: Carbon credits can be generated by afforestation and renewable energy projects. India has launched a domestic voluntary carbon market. Carbon markets are monitored under the Income Tax Act, 1961.
Answer: Only 1 and 2 are correct
A set of practices - reduced tillage, direct seeding, residue retention, diversified cropping - aimed at rebuilding soil organic carbon and soil biology while holding yields.
Verra's 'Improved Agricultural Land Management' methodology, which quantifies greenhouse-gas reductions and soil organic carbon removals from improved farm practices.
A market where private buyers purchase credits certified by independent standards for reasons other than a legal obligation, as distinct from a compliance market created by law.
Sowing paddy seed directly in the field instead of raising seedlings and transplanting them into puddled soil, which cuts irrigation rounds and methane emissions.