Farmer carbon credits: your field can earn from carbon

Stop burning what is left after harvest. Turn it into biochar, and get your share when its carbon credits sell. Pick your crop and watch one season.

One season, step by step

Crops: rice (rice straw), wheat (wheat straw), sugarcane (cane trash), cotton (cotton stalks), maize (maize stalks), orchards (pruned branches).

1. Map the plot. The field agent walks the boundary. The phone draws the plot.
2. Dry, then flood (rice only). Let the water fall 15 cm below the soil, seen in a field tube, then flood again.
3. Collect, don't burn. The crop residue is collected and weighed instead of burnt.
4. Kiln makes biochar. A kiln bakes it with little air. The sensor logs the heat, 450 °C or more.
5. Lab test. A lab tests a sample to prove the carbon will stay solid in the soil.
6. Back into the field. Biochar goes into the soil. A photo with place and time shows it went into this plot.
7. Verifier checks. An accredited verifier checks the record: residue, kiln, lab and field.
8. Sold, farmers paid. Credits are issued and sold. Your share is paid and recorded against your plot.

What one tonne of biochar holds.

One dry tonne with 75% organic carbon. Its carbon equals 2.75 tonnes of CO2; about 2.4 tonnes count as stored for 100 years if the kiln ran above 600 °C (about 2.2 between 450 and 600 °C). Emissions from collecting, the kiln and transport come off before credits are issued. A paddy drained several times a season gives off about 45% less methane. How much CO2 a tonne of biochar removes. The AWD methane calculation.

The field app does the paperwork while the agent walks.

Works with no signal. Syncs when the phone finds one.

• Farmer and plot: Walk the boundary and the phone draws the plot.
• Residue and kiln: Weight, kiln heat and lab result. Anything that fails is flagged at once.
• Into the soil: Each photo is checked against the plot and the distance from the kiln.
• Verifier pack: The whole chain and a map of every plot, ready for the verifier and the registry.

Checked on every batch: Kiln at 450 °C or more; H:Corg 0.7 or less; Spread inside the plot; Distance from the kiln logged.

Run the whole project from one record.

• Every plot: Farmers and boundaries, signed up offline by your agents.
• Every batch: Residue to soil, with the kiln log and lab test attached.
• Every rupee: Forward contracts and milestones with your financiers, and each farmer's share as paid.
• Every buyer: The proof, how long the carbon lasts, and the water, yield and income figures you recorded.

Start with one field.

Tell us what you grow and where. We'll tell you if it can earn credits and what proof it needs. Talk to us.

Straight answers

Do I have to grow rice?

No. Residue you would otherwise burn can feed a biochar kiln: rice and wheat straw, cane trash, cotton and maize stalks, orchard prunings. The water step applies only to paddy.

Who pays me, and when?

The project you sign with pays you the share written in your contract, when its credits sell or on the milestones it agreed with its financiers. The payment is recorded against your plots.

What do I need to keep?

Nothing on paper. The field agent's app records your plot, the residue weight, the kiln heat, the lab result and photos of the biochar going into your field, with place and time attached.

Why not just burn the residue?

Burning sends its carbon straight back into the air. A kiln keeps part of that carbon as solid biochar, and that solid carbon, proven to stay in your soil, is what a buyer pays for.

How much CO2 does one tonne of biochar hold?

One dry tonne with 75% organic carbon holds carbon equal to 2.75 tonnes of CO2. With the IPCC factor for biochar made above 600 °C, about 2.4 tonnes count as stored for 100 years (about 2.2 for 450 to 600 °C), before the emissions from collecting, the kiln and transport are subtracted.

How much does alternate wetting and drying cut methane?

Under IPCC 2019 defaults, a paddy drained several times a season gives off about 45% less methane than one kept flooded. The proof is dated readings from a water tube in the field.

Keep reading: Can paddy straw earn carbon credits?, Biochar carbon credits in India, Carbon credits from shade trees, All carbon removal pathways.