Google to Buy 1M Rice Methane Carbon Credits From India’s Mitti Labs

Google has agreed to purchase 1 million carbon credits from Indian climate-tech startup Mitti Labs through 2030, backing rice-farming practices designed to reduce methane emissions and water consumption.

The companies describe the agreement as the largest publicly announced purchase to date of carbon credits generated by cutting methane emissions from rice cultivation. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The project is expected to operate across rice-growing areas in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and reach about 100,000 hectares at peak delivery, according to Mitti Labs co-founder Xavier Laguarta.

Changing how rice fields are irrigated

Mitti Labs pays participating farmers to reduce how long their fields remain continuously flooded. The approach periodically drains and refloods rice paddies, reducing the conditions that produce methane during cultivation.

The startup says the practice can cut methane emissions by roughly 50% and irrigation water use by about 40% without reducing crop yields. Mitti Labs says its projects have already saved more than 500 billion litres of water over the past two years

Laguarta said Google evaluated the company’s monitoring technology and visited farms before signing the agreement. He said the deal will give Mitti Labs the scale needed to expand its operations and work with larger corporate carbon-credit buyers.

Google looks to address a growing emissions footprint

The purchase comes as Google works toward its goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2030 while continuing to invest heavily in AI and computing infrastructure.

Google reported about 14.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in ambition-based emissions for 2025, an 18% increase from the previous year, according to its environmental report. The company has acknowledged that rapid business and AI infrastructure growth is adding pressure to its climate targets.

Mitti Labs uses satellites and AI to monitor farms

Founded in 2023 and based in New York and Bengaluru, Mitti Labs has developed a GeoAI platform that combines satellite radar imagery with field measurements. The system tracks factors including crop growth, soil moisture and flooding across smallholder farms.

The company uses synthetic aperture radar data from commercial and public satellites, along with proprietary field data used to train its AI models. Laguarta said the technology allows Mitti Labs to monitor farming practices and measure emissions reductions remotely across large areas.

Carbon credits from the Google agreement can be issued under Gold Standard or Isometric certification frameworks. The projects are also subject to independent third-party verification before credits are issued.

Mitti Labs currently works with more than 100,000 farmers and counts Cool Effect, Ebro Foods and Syngenta among its customers. Laguarta said the Google agreement is the company’s largest offtake deal to date.

According to Laguarta, most revenue from Mitti Labs projects goes to farming communities. However, he declined to disclose how much farmers participating in the Google-backed project will receive.

Mitti Labs plans expansion beyond India

The Google project is focused on India, but Mitti Labs plans to launch operations in the Philippines later this year and expand into Indonesia and other Southeast Asian markets in 2027. The startup ultimately aims to work with millions of farmers by 2030.

The agreement also expands Google’s carbon-credit activity in India. The company previously agreed to buy 100,000 tons of carbon removal credits from Indian startup Varaha in 2025 and has separately backed solar energy projects in Rajasthan as part of efforts to address supply-chain emissions.

For Mitti Labs, the Google contract offers a major opportunity to scale a model that combines farmer payments, changes in irrigation practices, and satellite-based monitoring to reduce methane emissions from one of the world’s most widely cultivated crops.