Google Signs Landmark Carbon Credit Deal With Mitti Labs to Cut Methane From Indian Rice Farms

Google has agreed to purchase one million carbon credits from Indian climate-tech startup Mitti Labs through 2030, the largest publicly announced transaction to date for credits generated by efforts to reduce methane emissions in rice cultivation.

The four-year agreement will support rice farms in the Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, eventually covering approximately 100,000 hectares at peak delivery, according to Mitti Labs co-founder Xavier Laguarta. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Farmers will be paid to shorten the periods during which rice fields remain flooded, reducing methane released during cultivation and lowering irrigation demand. Mitti Labs says the approach can cut methane emissions by roughly 50% and irrigation water use by about 40% without compromising crop yields.

The agreement comes as Google works toward its goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2030 while making substantial investments in artificial-intelligence infrastructure. Its greenhouse gas emissions rose 18% year over year in 2025, reaching approximately 14.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to the environmental report released in June.

Laguarta said Mitti Labs began discussions with Google about a year ago as the technology company considered adding methane-reduction projects to its carbon-credit portfolio. He said Google was attracted by the project’s potential water savings and Mitti Labs’ ability to operate at scale.

Mitti Labs reports that its projects have conserved more than 500 billion liters of water over the past two years. Laguarta said the Google agreement would provide the company with the capacity to expand and serve larger corporate buyers.

Laguarta described Google’s participation as a strong endorsement for Mitti Labs, noting that the company subjected the startup to rigorous due diligence. He added that the agreement should enable substantial growth.

Before signing, Google reviewed Mitti Labs’ monitoring technology and sent representatives to inspect farms, Laguarta said. Founded in 2023, the New York- and Bengaluru-based startup has developed a GeoAI platform that combines satellite radar imagery with field measurements to monitor crop growth, soil moisture, and flooding on smallholder farms remotely.

The platform processes synthetic aperture radar imagery from commercial and public satellites with resolutions ranging from 50 centimeters to 10 meters. Laguarta said Mitti Labs also uses proprietary field data to train its artificial-intelligence models.

The credits sold to Google may be issued under either Gold Standard or Isometric, two carbon-credit certification bodies. Laguarta said each project receives independent third-party verification before credits are generated.

Mitti Labs also works with customers including carbon marketplace Cool Effect, rice producer Ebro Foods, and agricultural company Syngenta. Laguarta told TechCrunch that the Google agreement is the company’s largest purchase commitment to date.

Mitti Labs currently works with more than 100,000 farmers and aims to reach millions by 2030. The Google deal would help the startup expand its operations toward that target, according to Laguarta.

Laguarta said most of the revenue generated by the company’s projects is distributed to farming communities. He declined to say how much participating farmers will receive under the Google agreement.

Although the Google project is confined to India, Mitti Labs plans to begin operations in the Philippines later this year and expand into Indonesia and other Southeast Asian markets in 2027.

Laguarta believes the market has substantial room to grow as more companies turn to agricultural projects to address methane emissions. He said roughly 150 million farmers cultivate rice across India, Southeast Asia, and China.

The Mitti Labs agreement is not Google’s first investment in carbon removal in India. In January 2025, the Mountain View, California-based company partnered with Gurugram-based Varaha to purchase 100,000 tons of carbon credits. It was Google’s first large-scale carbon-removal purchase in India and its largest transaction involving biomass-derived biochar.

Google is also pursuing clean-energy projects in India to offset emissions from its supply chain. The company signed an agreement linked to a 150-megawatt solar project in Rajasthan, bringing its contracted solar capacity with ReNew in the state to 300 megawatts.

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