MITTI LABS & SALESFORCE PARTNER TO SCALE WATER-SAVING RICE FARMING PRACTICES THAT REDUCE METHANE EMISSIONS
Salesforce will purchase 500,000 high-integrity, data-backed methane reduction credits from Mitti Labs by 2030, bringing water resilience to India's smallholder farmers.
SAN FRANCISCO and BENGALURU, India, Oct. 28, 2026 /CNW/ -- Deep-tech company Mitti Labs today announced a five-year carbon credit offtake agreement with Salesforce to scale Climate-smart rice farming across tens of thousands of smallholder farms in India. Coming just weeks after Mitti Labs' offtake agreement with Google, this new partnership shows the growing corporate demand for satellite-verified rice methane credits as a scalable offset solution with near-term impact.
Climate-smart rice farming replaces traditional continuous irrigation with alternate irrigation, where farmers let their fields dry out during safe windows in the growing cycle. This low-cost practice shift helps the world grow more rice with less water, while abating methane emissions derived from microbe growth in oxygen-free soils. Alternate irrigation can cut methane emissions by up to 50% and water usage by up to 40%, without affecting yields.
Agriculture is responsible for 40% of all human-induced methane emissions, which are a powerful driver of climate change. Methane traps 85 times more heat than CO₂ but only stays in the atmosphere for a decade, meaning that every ton that is not emitted today delivers a fast, tangible reduction in near-term warming.
Commitments from companies like Salesforce are helping Mitti Labs scale these practices. Mitti Labs plans to scale its operations to meet this demand: by 2028, it plans to issue 2 million credits per year from its projects located in India and Southeast Asia.
"Salesforce is a founding member of the Beyond Alliance's Superpollutant Action Initiative. We know that superpollutant reduction is one of the best ways to slow near-term warming, and we are committed to directing capital toward high-impact mitigation efforts. Reducing methane emissions from rice farming is a scalable climate solution that also helps preserve water resources for future generations," said Jamila Yamani, PhD., Director of Climate & Energy at Salesforce.
Every credit delivered under the agreement will be backed by field-level evidence and satellite-verified field dry-downs. Mitti Labs' GeoAI platform, developed with support from NASA, fuses high-resolution satellite radar with field-collected ground truth to track flooding, soil moisture and crop health across individual smallholder plots. This provides credit buyers with transparent, independently verifiable proof of impact at a scale that manual monitoring is not able to match.
Beyond reducing methane emissions, the partnership is projected to save 700 billion liters of water, or roughly eighteen months of Bengaluru's annual supply, easing pressure on groundwater retrievals in regions where rice farming competes with urban and industrial water usages.
"Carbon credit buyers are increasingly asking not just what impact a project delivers, but how they can see it for themselves. Having Salesforce join Google in backing rice methane reductions shows that high-integrity, data-verified agricultural credits are becoming a core part of serious climate offsetting strategies. This agreement lets us reach tens of thousands more farmers with practices that cut emissions, save water and strengthen livelihoods," said Xavier Laguarta, co-founder at Mitti Labs.
With Salesforce's support, Mitti Labs will deepen its engagement with rice farming communities and expand the 'digital twins' GeoAI datasets that support the roll-out of its programs. As demand for the world's staple crop continues to grow and rainfall patterns become less predictable, the next five years in the partnership offer a chance to strengthen food security and realize the full potential of rice farming as a climate solution.
About Mitti Labs
Mitti Labs combines satellite technology, AI and field operations to create a water and climate resilient future for rice farming. To date, its programs have saved 500 billion liters of water -- the equivalent of Bengaluru's annual supply. In July 2026, Mitti Labs received an 'A' rating from leading ratings agency Sylvera in recognition of its rigorous implementation and measurement protocols.
Mitti Labs customers include global technology, service, food and agriculture businesses such as Google, Cool Effect, Ebro Foods, and Syngenta. Since launching in 2023, Mitti Labs has grown to 150 employees and secured $12.5 million from investors such as Lightspeed India, Aramco Ventures, Voyager Ventures, Godrej Industries Group, Cisco Foundation, Francis Family Fund, and Volta Circle. Visit mittilabs.earth to learn more.
SOURCE Mitti Labs
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