Mitti Labs has received more than 97,000 certificates for cutting methane from rice paddies in South India, the first rice methane certificates that the climate certification company Isometric has issued under its superpollutant programme. Each certificate stands for one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent avoided, independently verified under Isometric's Rice Methane Reduction Protocol, and they will go to corporate buyers including Google and Salesforce. The issuance was announced on November 5.
The problem is the paddy itself. Rice cultivation produces about one billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, comparable to global aviation, most of it from continuously flooded fields, where soil starved of oxygen favours methane-producing microbes. Methane is responsible for about a third of global warming to date, and atmospheric concentrations reached a record in 2025, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
Mitti Labs' answer is alternate wetting and drying (AWD): instead of keeping a field flooded through the season, the farmer drains it periodically and floods it again. The company says the practice can cut methane emissions by up to 50% and water use by 40% without reducing yields. It combines satellite technology, artificial intelligence and field teams to run its programmes, which now involve more than 100,000 farmers in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Odisha.
Verification was handled on Isometric's AI-powered Certify platform, which automates data checks and calculations, and the evidence and calculations behind the certificates are public on Isometric's registry. Google and Salesforce have signed agreements with Mitti Labs for a combined 1.5 million tonnes of emissions reductions.
For farmers, the money is the point. Revenue from the certificates will fund the projects and local jobs, and a share is expected to be paid directly to participating farmers from early 2027. Mitti Labs said the certification should widen demand for rice methane projects and let it scale up its programmes. Methane is one of the superpollutants that corporate buyers are increasingly paying to cut, because over short periods it warms the planet far more than carbon dioxide.
The story was reported by Rajasree Singh for Rural Voice.
Photo: Prathvi Acharya / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). A rice paddy under managed water, the kind of field where alternate wetting and drying is used.
Source: Rural Voice
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