Mitti Labs will expand its rice‑field methane‑reduction programme after Google agreed to buy 1 million carbon credits through 2030, a four‑year commitment that the companies said is the largest publicly announced deal for rice‑methane credits to date and will let the startup reach roughly 100,000 hectares at peak delivery.
The purchase covers farms in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Mitti co‑founder Xavier Laguarta said. The programme pays farmers to shorten the time paddies remain flooded, a change that the company reports cuts methane emissions by about 50% and trims irrigation water use by about 40%, while maintaining yields. Mitti also says its projects saved more than 500 billion litres of water over the last two years.
Mitti monitors fields with a GeoAI platform that combines satellite synthetic aperture radar imagery and ground measurements to track crop growth, soil moisture and flooding across smallholder plots, Laguarta said. The system ingests imagery at resolutions from 50 centimetres to 10 metres and trains models on proprietary field data, he added.
Google reviewed Mitti’s monitoring tools and carried out farm visits before signing the agreement, according to the companies. Credits destined for Google can be issued under Gold Standard or Isometric, and projects undergo independent third‑party verification before credits are issued, Laguarta said.
Mitti already partners with the carbon marketplace Cool Effect, rice producer Ebro Foods and agribusiness Syngenta, and the startup counts more than 100,000 farmers in its network with a goal of reaching millions by 2030. “Having Google, one of the most sophisticated buyers in the market with rigorous due diligence processes, is obviously a good signal for us,” Laguarta said. He declined to disclose the payments farmers will receive under the Google project but said a majority of revenue from Mitti’s projects flows to farming communities.
The deal arrives as Google faces a rising emissions profile tied to its investments in AI infrastructure; the company’s environmental report showed greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 rose 18% year‑on‑year to about 14.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. The agreement follows Google’s purchase of 100,000 tons of carbon credits from Varaha in January 2025 and sits alongside power deals such as a 150‑megawatt solar project in Rajasthan.
Looking ahead, Mitti plans to start operations in the Philippines later this year and expand into Indonesia and other Southeast Asian markets in 2027. Laguarta said the Google offtake will provide the scale the startup needs to pursue larger corporate buyers and broaden its farmer reach across Asia.
