For most of his farming life, Suresh Mane of Sangli district grew sugarcane the way his father did — ploughing deep, dousing the soil with urea, burning the stubble after harvest. The land produced. But the returns barely covered the inputs. Carbon was something he had heard about in school, decades ago. It certainly wasn't income.
That began to change in 2024, when Glaubark's field team arrived in his cluster with a proposition that sounded, at first, improbable: what if the carbon his soil sequestered could be sold to companies across the world?
What Are Agricultural Carbon Credits?
A carbon credit represents one tonne of carbon dioxide (or its equivalent) either removed from the atmosphere or prevented from entering it. In the voluntary carbon market — distinct from the compliance market regulated by governments — these credits are bought by companies and institutions seeking to offset their emissions while broader net-zero transitions are underway.
Agricultural carbon credits, sometimes called "soil carbon credits" or "practice-based credits," are generated when farmers adopt specific land management changes that improve the carbon balance of their fields. These changes include:
- Reducing or eliminating synthetic nitrogen fertilisers
- Transitioning to drip irrigation and reducing water evaporation
- Incorporating crop residues back into the soil instead of burning them
- Planting cover crops to keep soil biology active between seasons
- Reducing tillage to preserve soil structure and the carbon trapped within it
The key distinction is additionality — the credit is only valid if the carbon sequestered or emission avoided would not have happened without the program. This is why baseline measurement and independent verification are so critical to any credible carbon project.
The Glaubark Model: From Farm to Registry
Glaubark works at the intersection of agronomic practice, data systems, and carbon markets. Rather than asking farmers to do something entirely new, the team redesigns existing farming systems around practices that are both financially and ecologically superior — and then builds the measurement infrastructure around those practices to generate carbon credits aligned with VCS and compliance markets.
The process runs across eleven structured stages:
- Site identification — Selection of geographically appropriate farming clusters with measurable baseline conditions.
- Farmer onboarding — Registration of individual farmers, GIS mapping of plots, and collection of baseline data through multilingual digital surveys.
- Project registration — Filing and approval with VCS (Verra's Verified Carbon Standard), establishing the approved methodology and boundaries.
- Practice implementation — Farmers adopt one or more of Glaubark's ten supported interventions, supported by field advisory and input assistance.
- Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) — Satellite imagery, remote sensing, biogeochemical modelling, and on-ground evidence combine into a continuous monitoring record.
- Third-party validation and verification — An independent auditor reviews the project's methodology, data, and outcomes against the registered baseline.
- Credit issuance — Verified carbon reductions are issued as tradeable credits and listed on a recognised registry.
"We don't just measure the carbon and leave. We stay with the farmer through the whole process — training, monitoring, troubleshooting. The credit is the outcome of a relationship, not a transaction."
— Glaubark Field Coordinator, Maharashtra
The Numbers: What Farmers Are Actually Earning
Early data from Glaubark's pilot programs tells a striking story. Across enrolled farmers, the average income uplift — counting both reduced input costs and carbon credit revenue — has reached 10–30% compared to pre-enrolment baselines. Input costs, dominated by synthetic fertilisers, pesticides, and fuel-intensive irrigation, have fallen by an average of 30–40% as regenerative practices reduce dependency on external inputs.
These are not abstract projections. They reflect enrolled farms moving off high-cost synthetic inputs toward regenerative practice, with carbon credit revenue sitting on top of a healthier crop. Income has lifted 10–30% against pre-enrolment baselines, while input costs have fallen 30–40%.
Across enrolled farmers, the average income uplift has reached 10–30% compared to pre-enrolment baselines.
VCS Alignment: Why Standards Matter
The voluntary carbon market has faced legitimate criticism. Without rigorous standards, credits can represent inflated or phantom reductions that provide no real climate benefit. Glaubark's commitment to the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) administered by Verra — the world's most widely used carbon crediting programme — means every credit goes through independent scientific scrutiny before it reaches a buyer.
VCS alignment also matters for buyers. Corporate procurement teams increasingly distinguish between "quality" offsets backed by transparent MRV and weaker alternatives. A VCS-registered agricultural credit from a verified Indian project commands premium pricing and buyer confidence that generic credits do not.
Who Buys These Credits?
Buyers span a range of sectors. Technology companies with aggressive net-zero commitments, FMCG brands with supply chain emissions, and financial institutions managing Scope 3 exposure are among the most active. For Indian agricultural credits specifically, there is growing interest from companies with direct supply chain ties to India — those sourcing cotton, sugar, spices, or grains, who see value in supporting the very farming communities their supply chains depend on.
Carbon credit buyers also include government-linked funds and climate-focused investment vehicles looking for portfolio-quality assets with co-benefits (biodiversity, water stewardship, livelihood improvement) beyond simple carbon numbers.
What This Means for Indian Agriculture
India has approximately 140 million farming households. The majority operate small and marginal holdings, are heavily indebted, and face compounding stress from input price inflation and unpredictable monsoons. Carbon credits are not a silver bullet — but as a supplementary income stream linked to better land management, they represent something genuinely new: a way to make ecological improvement financially rewarding at the farm level.
As the voluntary carbon market matures and Indian project infrastructure deepens, the number of farmers who can participate is set to grow significantly. Glaubark's model, designed to work with FPOs, sugar mills, and cooperative structures already embedded in rural India, is positioned to scale that participation at cluster rather than individual level — making the administrative overhead of carbon project management economically viable even for small landholders.
For Suresh Mane, the first carbon payment arrived in January 2025. He used it to repay a portion of a loan that had been accumulating for three seasons. "The soil is better," he said. "The crops are better. And now there is money from the air itself." It was, he noted, the first time farming had felt like it was working with him rather than against him.
