In an innovative breakthrough for agrarian sustainability, agricultural venture Grow Indigo in partnership with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research disbursed India’s maiden soil carbon direct benefit payments totaling 2.9 crore rupees to verified farming families across Punjab and Haryana on Thursday. The pioneer distribution monetized verified soil carbon sequestration achievements across thirty thousand acres of agricultural land.
Beneficiary farmers earned voluntary carbon credit revenues by adopting verified regenerative cultivation practices, such as direct-seeded rice techniques, zero-tillage sowing, and biological stubble decomposition rather than conventional agricultural residue burning. Independent soil core sampling and satellite remote sensing models verified that the practices collectively sequestered substantial carbon equivalents while reducing groundwater pumping requirements.
Agricultural economists highlighted that the pilot provides an economically sustainable, market-based template to solve northern India’s annual winter air pollution crisis caused by crop residue fires. Participating farmers expressed satisfaction with direct banking settlements, and program managers announced plans to scale the soil carbon monetization initiative across one hundred thousand acres during the forthcoming rabi sowing cycle.
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Sources:
https://www.bankersadda.com/daily-current-affairs-and-gk-updates-17th-september-2026/