Carbon credit-based farming to roll out in west UP

Roorkee: In a major initiative aimed at boosting farmers' incomes, carbon credit-based farming is set to be introduced from the upcoming kharif season across three districts of western UP -- Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar and Shamli. The project will be led by the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT-R) and is being described as the "country's first large-scale, state-level carbon credit programme for farmers".In the first phase, paddy cultivation using carbon credit practices will be undertaken on nearly five lakh hectares across the three districts, covering about three lakh farmers in 1,771 gram panchayats of the Saharanpur division. "The UP agriculture department has authorised us to lead this project," said AS Maurya, professor of earth sciences at IIT-R and nodal officer for the scheme. Around Rs 100 crore has been invested in the programme, with five private companies jointly funding it, IIT-R officials said. The companies associated with the project are Proclime Services (Chennai), Tryambhu Tech Solutions (Sangareddy), AccelESG India (Rangareddy), Compliance Kart (Noida) and Satt Global Services (Udaipur).Monitoring will begin in the upcoming kharif season (May-June) for the paddy crop. The process will include soil testing, followed by laser land levelling and the use of a super seeder to sow paddy in small, evenly spaced pits. It will also involve weed, water and soil pH management, along with sensor-based monitoring to track methane emissions.After harvesting, crop residue (parali) will be left in the field. A key feature of the initiative is that the same field can be reused for rabi crops such as wheat without conventional tillage."This is known as the mulching process. The residue acts as an organic fertiliser and can reduce dependence on chemical fertilisers by over 30%," said Kavin Kumar Kandasamy, CEO of Proclime Services.