# How does Verra VM0042 work for Indian smallholder farms?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/vm0042-soil-carbon-india-smallholders

VM0042 v2.2 credits a measured change in farm practice, such as less tillage, better fertiliser or water use, cover crops or agroforestry, on cropland or grassland. Each field's baseline comes from at least three past years of records. Smallholders join through a project, because sampling and verification only pay across many fields.

## What counts as a practice change

- Starting a new practice, stopping one (for example tillage or irrigation), adjusting one, or a mix.
- A change in quantity, such as less fertiliser, must be more than 5% of the average over the past years.
- The practice must fall under fertiliser, water, tillage and residue, planting and harvesting, or grazing.
- The land must be cropland or grassland on the project start date.

## Records each field needs

The baseline repeats what the field did over at least three years before the start, including one full crop rotation. Practice details come from the farmer, backed by a signed attestation. For quantities, VM0042 takes, in order of preference: records backed by documents such as logs, receipts or invoices, or remote sensing; written management plans; a farmer's signed figure that matches similar fields; and, last, regional averages.

## How the carbon is counted

- Measure and model: a soil model, with soil carbon measured at the start and at least every five years.
- Measure and re-measure: direct soil sampling, against control sites kept on the old practice.
- Default factors: for fuel CO2 and for nitrous oxide, and for methane other than methane made in the soil itself.

## What rules a field out

- Native vegetation cleared in the 10 years before the start.
- An expected lasting yield fall of more than 5%.
- Wetlands, though artificially flooded crops can qualify if nearby wetlands are not affected.
- Biochar credits: biochar can be spread, but its carbon is subtracted from the soil carbon gain. Biochar has its own method, VM0044.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible's field app runs a regenerative farming module on Verra VM0042 v2.2 next to biochar: agents register farmers with recorded consent, walk plot edges with no signal, and log practices with geotagged photos for the verifier evidence pack.

- [Soil carbon credits for farmers](https://senseible.earth/answers/soil-carbon-credits-india-farmers)
- [Joining a regenerative project](https://senseible.earth/answers/join-regenerative-agriculture-carbon-programme-india)
- [Soil carbon sampling depth](https://senseible.earth/answers/soil-carbon-baseline-sampling-depth)
- [Carbon removal](https://senseible.earth/carbon-removal)

Sources: [Verra, VM0042 Improved Agricultural Land Management, v2.2 (21 October 2025): Sections 1, 4 and 6, Box 1](https://verra.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/VM0042v2.2.pdf), [Verra, VM0042 Improved Agricultural Land Management, v2.2, methodology page](https://verra.org/methodologies/vm0042-improved-agricultural-land-management-v2-2/)

Last reviewed 2026-11-02.