Mitti Labs and ACCESS: a partnership to transform rice farming in India

Mitti Labs has developed an end-to-end framework that combines cutting-edge technology with deep engagement with rice farming communities. This framework supports and incentivizes the adoption of Climate-smart farming practices that reduce water usage by 40%, cut methane emissions by 50%, and meaningfully boost farmer incomes.

Since launching in 2023, Mitti Labs has gone from field trials to fully operational programs with over 40,000 farmers across 6 states in India. This rapid scale-up is made possible through the commitment of implementation partners like ACCESS. Implementation partners provide a thorough understanding of local agricultural practices, plus the ability to affect these practices through their teams on the ground. These field teams are part of the communities they serve, which contributes to local job and revenue creation.

ACCESS is a development agency established in 2006 in New Delhi. Its mission is to incubate innovations for sustainable livelihoods across India.

Together Mitti Labs and ACCESS have onboarded, trained and supported 18,000 rice farmers across 5 districts in rural Andhra Pradesh in the shift to Climate-smart practices, particularly Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD). 

To implement AWD in a way that is both rigorous and safe, Mitti Labs relies on close collaboration with field teams from ACCESS and on local partnerships with village and district-level organizations, cooperatives, and NGOs who work directly with farmer communities. These local partnerships are enabled by the wider collaboration between ACCESS and Mitti Labs.

This partnership model ensures that projects are scientifically sound, socially equitable, and operationally scalable: methane emissions are reduced, yields are preserved, and farming communities are incentivized via a revenue share from the proceeds of carbon credits sales.

How it works: Our partnerships in action

Our partnerships with implementation partners are structured in four phases:

1. Partner Selection: Implementation partners are chosen based on farmer networks, local knowledge, and commitment to inclusivity.

2. Awareness & Onboarding: Implementation partners mobilize farmers through village meetings and one-on-one outreach, collecting land and ID documentation. Mitti Labs shares outreach materials, data collection tools, and onboarding templates.

3. Implementation & Monitoring: Field agents bridge farmers and Mitti Labs, tracking AWD adoption, irrigation patterns, and crop cycles. Mitti Labs provides technical support, satellite data integration, and real-time dashboards.

4. Verification & Revenue Sharing: Verified data feeds into carbon credit systems, with transparent revenue shared equitably among farmers.

‘’Working with Mitti Labs has successfully helped us to accelerate our footprint across 5 districts in AP resulting in a threefold expansion from 6k to 18k farmers within a year. This has allowed us to grow our local team size by over 130 new field agents. Mitti Labs also provides valuable support to our teams and helps us guide local communities in the implementation of AWD. I look forward to continuing our partnership with Mitti Labs to implement Climate-smart rice farming at scale.’’ Vipin Sharma, CEO Access Development Services

Through this approach, implementation partners not only drive adoption of regenerative practices but also build long-term institutional capacity within farming communities. Implementation partners themselves benefit from risk-free revenue streams, scaling as project areas expand.

The price of rice  

''Rice farming accounts for 25% of India’s agricultural landmass. It is highly fragmented: 70% of India’s 120 Mn rice farmers own less than 1 Ha, which means that tens of millions of livelihoods are barely over subsistence levels''. Devdut Dalal, Mitti Labs Co-founder

Furthermore, declining water tables present an immediate risk to these communities: traditional, continuously-flooded rice agriculture is a major guzzler of water. Each kilo of rice requires 3,000 to 5,000 liters of water. In total, rice farming consumes 30% of all India’s freshwater, a resource that could instead be used towards increasing yields and securing future agricultural incomes. 

A 2018 study from NITI Aayog highlights the severity of India’s looming water crisis: 40% of Indians will have no access to drinking water by 2030.

There is a better way, which can also generate meaningful co-benefits on soil health and community incomes. It is linked to the second major culprit in traditional rice practices: rice fields that are continuously flooded release vast amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas with 85 times the warming potential of CO2. Globally, rice farming accounts for 12% of all methane emissions, or the emission equivalent of all air travel. 

To contain global warming, rapid methane abatement from all human activities has emerged as a key focus area for international carbon credits markets. This translates into a powerful new incentive model to help rice farmers transition to Climate-smart practices. 

Partnership outcomes

• 18,000 farmers onboarded into the partnership in 12 months. 

• Boost to farmer income. Annual proceeds from revenue share of carbon credit compound to meaningful income increase over the engagement time frame.  

• 20 billion liters of water saved. Farmer-level water savings compound into meaningful economic change at the community level. For example, a community of 500 farmers could collectively save 1 Bn of water each year. 

• 8% boost in rice yields. AWD-irrigated rice fetches higher prices at the mill level because of lower breaking rates.
  
  “Earlier, we kept 3 inches of water standing in the field all the time. Now, with the AWD pipe, we know when to irrigate and when to wait. We save four to five rounds of watering each season. It’s better for us and for the soil.” Boddireddy Prathap Reddy, farmer in Kannaraopet Village.

  
  

Get involved! Mitti Labs is looking for partners to scale across India. Contact us to learn more: partnerships@mittilabs.earth