Mitti Labs, a deeptech climate technology company, has entered into a research partnership with Indian Council of Agricultural Research – Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR-IARI). The collaboration is designed to extend Mitti Labs’ research and quantification of methane emissions from rice farming through joint scientific investigation and laboratory analysis.
ICAR-IARI, which played a central role in research underpinning the Green Revolution in India during the 1970s, operates a 500-hectare campus near Delhi along with multiple regional stations across the country. The institute conducts work in agricultural engineering, microbiology, seed science, soil technology and greenhouse gas emissions monitoring. Through this partnership, ICAR-IARI’s gas chromatography capabilities will be used to generate datasets aimed at developing the next generation of biogeochemical models to quantify methane emissions across rice varieties and agro ecological zones. The resulting quantifications are expected to strengthen the scientific evidence base for scaling climate smart rice farming practices in India.
Growing Climate and Production Pressures
Rice cultivation accounts for 17 per cent of India’s methane emissions. Since 2025, India has become the world’s largest producer of rice, a development that is expected to increase methane emissions from rice farming if current practices continue.
Mitti Labs reports that it has onboarded 60,000 farmers across six Indian states to adopt climate smart practices, particularly Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD). The irrigation technique reduces water usage by 40 per cent and lowers methane emissions by 50 per cent, while maintaining yields for farmers.
The scientific framework
Methane contributes to 25 per cent of global warming to date. Measuring agricultural methane emissions through traditional methods has been described as costly and difficult to scale. The partnership focuses on analysing gas and soil samples collected by the Mitti Labs team across multiple growing seasons in India.
Samples from two rice cultivation systems, conventional continuously flooded fields and fields managed under Alternate Wetting and Drying, will be compared. Gas samples from field sites will be analysed at laboratories led by Dr Arti Bhatia at ICAR-IARI using gas chromatography. Soils will also be examined for key physico chemical properties. The in situ laboratory dataset is intended to serve as a foundation for calibrating and validating Mitti Labs’ digital monitoring, reporting and verification (dMRV) platform, which uses satellite remote sensing and biogeochemical modelling to track farming practices and quantify environmental outcomes across millions of farms.
Perspectives from the collaboration
“As a scientist specialised in greenhouse gas monitoring, I am thrilled to be partnering with Mitti Labs,” said Dr Arti Bhatia, Principal Scientist at ICAR-IARI. “Their work with smallholder farmers is truly innovative and tackles key issues in agriculture in India: rice farming occupies 25% of our agricultural landmass and employs tens of millions of smallholder farmers. Quantifying and then reducing methane emissions, optimising water usage and securing livelihoods is crucial to our food security and future climate trajectory.”
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Mitti Labs co-founder Devdut Dalal described the collaboration as a milestone for the organisation. “By combining ICAR-IARI’s scientific rigor and decades of experience in agricultural research with our innovative dMRV platform, we’re building the foundation to truly scale climate smart rice farming across India and beyond. This partnership validates our approach and accelerates our mission to help millions of smallholder farmers transition to sustainable practices,” he said.
The broader implications
The partnership adopts an iterative “measure-and-model” approach that combines ground measurements with remote sensing and biogeochemical modelling. According to the organisations, this method allows environmental outcomes to be tracked at a fraction of the cost associated with conventional measurement systems.
United Nations estimates suggest that India’s methane emissions from rice farming could rise by 8 per cent by 2030 if prevailing cultivation methods continue. The collaborators state that validated and scalable practices such as Alternate Wetting and Drying, supported by scientific research, offer a pathway to alter that trajectory while conserving water resources and supporting farmer livelihoods.
The research findings will be disseminated through scientific publications, contributing to the agricultural research community and informing evidence based policymaking. The partners state that this approach also aims to strengthen trust in carbon markets through transparent and scientifically validated measurement systems.