NEW DELHI: Startup nurture.farm has sold 20,000 carbon units from agricultural waste, the first time an Indian firm has entered the so-called global carbon market through the farm sector, the company said. The carbon trading market is designed to offset global-warming emissions, an approach some environmentalists criticise.
A carbon credit is a permit equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide – a key greenhouse gas. It allows a polluter to continue emitting up to a set limit by purchasing credits. The money is then invested in environmental projects to ultimately offset global warming.
Critics say credits allow polluters to continue polluting, while backers say offsets are a useful tool to reduce overall emissions. This system was ratified by the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement. Carbon offset assets are often created in farm and forestry sectors.
Nuture.farm is the largest participant in the use of “Pusa bio-decomposer”, a company spokesperson said.
“Pusa bio-decomposer”, an organic solution developed by the state-run Indian Agricultural Research Institute, is designed to melt away leftovers from paddy cultivation in Punjab and Haryana, thereby preventing their burning, a cause of deadly annual smog across north India.
Nuture.farm’s dry-seeded rice project – a cultivation technique that saves water – covered “22,000 acres of rice paddy fields and involved over 2,500 smallholder farmers”, the company statement said. Another 120,000 credits are under process aimed at preventing 420,000 acres of farmland being burnt, the firm added.
Indian agri startups are fast expanding, offering tech-based services. India has the third highest unicorns in the world after the US and China in 2021. A unicorn is a startup with a valuation of at least $1 billion.
“India is well-placed to pioneer agriculture-related carbon credit trading. India is the world’s second-largest producer of key staples including rice, wheat, fruit and vegetables,” Dhruv Sawhney of nurture.farm said. Some campaigners, such as Raja Ram of Samaj Pragati Sahayog, said if carbon credits do work, “polluters should rather cut emissions directly”.
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