Carbon Credits: Incentivising sustainable agriculture for the Indian farmer

This article was originally published on The Times Of India. The author is Dhruv Sawhney, the Business Head and COO, nurture.farm.

Agriculture is one of the sectors that registered robust growth even during the COVID19 pandemic phase because of the necessity to feed the global population, its potential to support economic growth, create and sustain jobs and boost exports. When most industries were reducing employment, agriculture saw an increase in employment ratios. Now that we are past the COVID phase, India is back on track to chase its goal of reaching the $5 trillion economic target by 2024/25. While every sector of the country will strive to attain this goal, its impact on the consumption of natural and energy resources will be tremendous. As the fastest growing economy, India is only behind China and the US in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Growing by approximately three per cent annually from 2020, its CO2 emissions are estimated to reach 3.7 billion tons by 2030. 

A farmer is probably the most exposed victim of the climate change food chain, subject to vagaries of nature such as unseasonal rainfalls, flash floods, and draughts. On the flipside, farming as a practice contributes significantly to GHG emissions; in India’s case, a significant 18% of the country’s GHG emissions. For years, negligent agricultural practices have been deployed to a point where today, the soil’s nutrient content, bioactivity, and natural carbon content are abysmally low. Inefficient and reckless agricultural practices have shoved the human race into a carbon debt. Drawing more to feed an ever-growing population will only further deplete whatever little is left. 

Sustainable agriculture solutions 

The world today is hence entitled to build sustainability into the agri-ecosystem by providing opportunities to drive a new positive agenda for arable land, with benefits for climate, biodiversity, farm profitability, and farmer resilience, all of which are deeply interconnected. Today Agtech startups are imparting renewed focus to this sector by introducing scientific and nature-based solutions that aim to reduce emissions, water wastage, and incessant fertiliser usage while improving yield, organic carbon (sequestering), and bio-activity of the soil. Implementing such strategies sounds daunting, but nudging farmers towards behavioural shifts to adopt sustainable farming practices is the only way forward. Once the farmers are educated about these scientific agricultural practices, and when they see results first-hand, they conform to adopting such practices. These include the practices of crop residue management that prevent the farmers from stubble burning by spraying their stubble with bio-decomposers. Farmers who have adopted bio-decomposition have seen the triple benefits of improved soil quality, reduction in fertiliser cost for the next cropping season, and additional income in the form of intermittent crops.

Similarly, given the water-intensive nature of paddy cultivation (flooded rice), it is considered one of the significant sources of methane emissions worldwide from agriculture. Possible ways to reduce methane emissions are switching from continuous flooding to intermittent flooding (Alternate Wet & Dry, or AWD) or moving to the direct seeding method (DSR) instead of transplantation. Apart from saving 15-30% on water usage, AWD-DSR also reduces the incidence of certain pests and diseases, further improving yields and boosting farmers’ resilience. 

Another way to improve efficiency while lowering the carbon footprint is the introduction of precision agriculture. In conventional agricultural practice, spraying of pesticides, insecticides or herbicides is done manually or with the help of tractor-mounted sprayers where high quantities of pesticides and water are used. A sizable portion of spray goes waste in these procedures. However, the use of boom sprayers/ drones in agriculture helps increase the efficiency of applying crop protection chemicals by reducing manpower, time, water & chemical consumption and saving drift to the environment along with reducing human exposure to chemicals. For the smallholder farmers in India, owning/accessing such costly farm machinery remains a challenge. The most effective way to achieve this is by leveraging a shared economy platform wherein expensive equipment is shared between a large number of farmers. With technology playing the role of virtual aggregator of farms, farm mechanisation as a service can be made available to farmers at a price point that is cost-effective and affordable, at times even much cheaper than hiring manual labour. 

Carbon credit agri-models to boost adoption

While the immediate benefits of adopting these practices are evident in the yield and soil quality, demand for credible carbon credits from the voluntary carbon markets can further serve as an additional monetary incentive for the smallholder farmer. Generating carbon credits for agri-business would thus make Indian farmers more resilient by securing better yields, improved soil health, and enhanced livelihoods. 

Previously the green revolution in India focussed on food sufficiency, but now it is time to lead a carbon revolution anchored on sustainability, nutrition security and total farm productivity. By integrating technology into each value point of the agricultural ecosystem, India is well-placed to pioneer agriculture-related carbon credit trading. Agtech startups setting up this architecture are activating and energising the agriculture sector into a new era of carbon credit-based incentive models encouraging farmers to adopt practices that are better for them in all aspects. While sustainable agriculture is being promoted as a climate change mitigation strategy, a carbon credit based model can help faster adoption by farmers and in turn ensure global food security in a climate-constrained world. Additionally, It would bring considerable benefits to ecosystems and biodiversity and water protection, as well as to farmers themselves through increased resilience and profitability: a win-win-win scenario.