Google Signs Largest Rice-Methane Carbon Credit Deal With Indian Startup Mitti Labs

Google Secures Landmark Carbon Credit Deal to Address AI Infrastructure Emissions

Google has committed to purchasing 1 million carbon credits from Indian climate-tech startup Mitti Labs through 2030, marking the largest publicly announced carbon credit deal focused on reducing methane emissions in rice farming1

1

. The four-year agreement addresses a critical challenge for the tech giant: achieving net-zero emissions by 2030 while simultaneously expanding AI infrastructure that drove its greenhouse gas emissions up 18% year-over-year in 2025 to approximately 14.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent1

1

.

The partnership with Mitti Labs represents corporate sustainability meeting agricultural innovation at scale. Google's evaluation process included rigorous scrutiny of the startup's monitoring technology and on-site farm visits before finalizing the agreement1

1

. Xavier Laguarta, co-founder of Mitti Labs, noted that having Google—one of the market's most sophisticated buyers with rigorous due diligence processes—validates their approach and provides the scale needed to work with large corporate buyers1

1

.

Transforming Rice Cultivation Across Three Indian States

The carbon credit deal will cover rice farms across Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, reaching approximately 100,000 hectares at peak delivery1

1

. The project compensates farmers for adopting practices that reduce flooding duration in rice fields, directly cutting methane released during cultivation while simultaneously reducing irrigation water use1

1

.

Mitti Labs employs an Alternate Wetting and Drying model that can reduce methane emissions by approximately 50% and irrigation water use by about 40% without sacrificing crop yields1

1

. By 2030, the partnership is projected to unlock 1.5 trillion liters of water savings—roughly equivalent to three years of Bengaluru's entire water supply—across critical watersheds in India2

2

. This water conservation becomes increasingly vital as water storage across India's 166 major reservoirs fell from 38% of capacity in late April to just 32% by July 2026, with roughly 60% of India's farmers dependent on monsoon rainfall2

2

.

GeoAI Platform Powers Scalable Methane Reduction

Founded in 2023 and based in New York and Bengaluru, Mitti Labs has built a GeoAI platform that combines satellite radar imagery with field measurements to remotely track crop growth, soil moisture, and flooding across smallholder farms1

1

. The AI-powered platform uses synthetic aperture radar imagery from commercial and public satellites, with resolutions ranging from 50 centimeters to 10 meters, supplemented by proprietary field data to train its AI models1

1

.

This technology, developed with support from NASA, delivers real-time information on crop health, soil moisture, and flooding status for each small farm holding, making it a solution capable of operating at population scale across multiple geographies2

2

. Traditional rice farming keeps fields continuously flooded, creating ideal conditions for methane-producing microbes to thrive. Methane carries 85 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide and is responsible for roughly one-third of current global warming, though it breaks down in the atmosphere far quicker than carbon dioxide, making methane abatement an effective lever to limit near-term peak warming2

2

.

Farmer Adoption and Revenue Distribution

Mitti Labs currently works with more than 100,000 farmers and aims to reach millions of farmers by 20301

1

. A majority of revenue from the startup's projects flows directly to farming communities, though specific payment details for the Google project were not disclosed1

1

. Yield concerns remain the primary worry when Mitti Labs pitches their process to farmers, making the demonstrated ability to maintain crop yields while reducing emissions and water use critical to adoption2

2

.

The credits sold to Google can be issued under either Gold Standard or Isometric certification bodies, with projects undergoing independent third-party verification before credits are issued1

1

. The startup's projects have already saved more than 500 billion liters of water over the past two years1

1

.

Expansion Plans and Market Implications

Google began talks with Mitti Labs approximately a year ago as the tech company explored adding methane-reduction projects to its carbon-credit portfolio, drawn particularly to the project's water savings and Mitti Labs' ability to operate at scale1

1

. While the Google project is limited to India, Mitti Labs plans to launch operations in the Philippines later this year and expand into Indonesia and Southeast Asian markets in 20271

1

.

Laguarta sees significant room for market growth as more companies look to agricultural projects to tackle methane emissions, noting that about 150 million farmers grow rice across India, Southeast Asia, and China1

1

. In addition to Google, Mitti Labs works with customers including carbon marketplace Cool Effect, rice producer Ebro Foods, and agricultural company Syngenta1

1

.

This deal represents Google's second major carbon-removal investment in India. In January 2025, Google partnered with Gurugram-based Varaha to purchase 100,000 tons of carbon credits, marking its first large-scale purchase of carbon removal credits in the country involving biomass-produced biochar1

1

. Google is also pursuing clean-energy projects in India, having signed an agreement tied to a 150-megawatt solar project in Rajasthan, bringing its contracted solar capacity with ReNew in the state to 300 megawatts1

1

. Watch for how this deal influences other tech companies facing similar tensions between AI infrastructure growth and climate commitments, and whether agricultural carbon credits become a preferred pathway for corporate sustainability goals amid water scarcity challenges across Asia.