Rice is the staple crop for more than half of the world’s population. Demand is increasing with population growth in South and Southeast Asia. However, a significant proportion of rice cultivation still relies on traditional cultivation methods that result in significant methane emissions, which are major contributors to climate change. 30 times more powerful than carbon dioxide As for the warming of the atmosphere, it dissipates more quickly. Rice cultivation also requires a considerable amount of fresh water, about 3,000 liters per kilo of rice, or 20 million liters per hectare of rice field.
Mitti Labs aims to reduce methane emissions and water waste in rice farming with its technology solutions. Co-founded by Harvard Business School graduates Xavier Laguarta and Devdut Dalal, the company has now raised $3 million in equity funding. It aims to reduce methane emissions by 50% and water consumption by 30% using technologies such as high-resolution satellite imagery and ground-based gas chambers.
The New York-based startup, with a subsidiary in Bengaluru, India, launched last May and has chosen India as its primary market. India is the world’s second-largest rice producer, but the livelihoods of its rice farmers are threatened by climate change, which has led to a significant drop in sea levels and an increase in the amount of methane in its atmosphere.
Laguarta and Dalal conceptualized Mitti Labs last year after meeting while pursuing their master’s degrees in business applications at Harvard Business School. Before launching the startup, Laguarta had experience with sustainability consultants, while Dalal worked in the food and agricultural supply chain. A third co-founder, CTO Nathan Torbick, also signed on.
“In agriculture, we see that a lot has been done and regenerative agriculture is a topic that is talked about all over the world. But if you look at the number of people who are specifically interested in rice, it is much smaller than most other crops,” Laguarta said in an interview.
Measuring emissions, selling carbon credits
Rice produced about half of greenhouse gas emissions from cropland, including 30% of agricultural methane emissions. However, farms can reduce methane emissions from rice crops, largely through better water management or alternating wetting and drying.
In collaboration with non-profit Syngenta Foundation and Dr. Reddy’s Foundation, as well as Spanish food processing company Ebro Foods, Mitti Labs has launched five projects across India to help farmers adopt and implement sustainable farming techniques, avoid stubble burning and use limited water. These rice farming projects cover an area of 30,000 hectares and will help reduce CO2e emissions by 120,000 tonnes, the startup said.
Mitti Labs aims to work with over 40,000 smallholder farmers to integrate and measure sustainable farming practices that will not only improve the environmental aspect of rice farming but also help farmers increase their annual income by up to 30%, as the startup will allow them to earn money through carbon credits that it will sell on their behalf in the market.
Convincing smallholder farmers to adopt new techniques can sometimes be challenging, as they are often reluctant to move away from their traditional practices. However, Dalal told TechCrunch that Mitti Labs provides support and guidance to farmers and offers them regular touchpoints through its implementation partners on the ground.
“Our team works with implementing partners, continually refining the basics; what worked in this village didn’t work on average or didn’t work, let’s try to present it this way, etc. So the behavior change element has to be very targeted, completely aligned with that,” he said.
On the technology side, Mitti Labs uses a remote sensing platform that measures climate impact using satellite imagery. The startup buys high-resolution images captured using synthetic aperture radars from SAOCOM and Umbra and fuses them with open-source satellite imagery to understand farmers’ practices. The high-resolution images come from synthetic aperture radars that penetrate objects on the Earth’s surface using different wavelengths to measure characteristics such as water level, soil moisture, and plant growth.
In addition to satellite imagery, Mitti Labs uses greenhouse gas chambers to capture methane and nitric oxide fluxes from the field. Data from these chambers is fed into a software model and processed by third-party labs to calculate emissions.
On the carbon credit side, Mitti Labs worked with Cornell University, the International Rice Research Institute, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for about 12 months, running experiments with satellite imagery and gas chamber data to test and advance its measurement practices. This should help buyers in Europe and the U.S. buy carbon credits with confidence.
Mitti Labs is currently working with Gold Standard to issue carbon credits. However, Laguarta told TechCrunch that the startup could expand to Verra as it grows its business.
Converting carbon credits into real money takes time. According to Laguarta, Mitti Labs is currently in the verification phase of the projects it has launched. Still, the company’s goal is for farmers to earn at least 70% of their income from sustainable farming practices. The remaining amount will be split between Mitti Labs’ partners and the startup itself.
The success of its first five projects is expected to help Mitti Labs expand its presence. The startup already has 10 more projects in the pipeline and plans to expand geographically and enter the market in Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam.
Laguarta told TechCrunch that Mitti Labs has already found the “right local partners” in new markets and is in discussions with project investors and carbon offset buyers to fund local projects. The plan is to launch by the end of 2024 or sometime in 2025. However, the startup still sees India as its target market.
“India is our first market, and that is where we believe we have a strong desire to make an impact,” Laguarta said.
Mitti Labs isn’t the only startup driving sustainable agriculture in India. Varaha, supported by RTP Global is one of the existing players in this field. However, Laguarta said that most of these startups do not focus specifically on one culture.
“If you try to do five different things, I think that’s a good strategy for some people. For us, the important thing is to become the best at rice farming, and we think there should be someone who is the best at agroforestry and someone who is the best at biochar and other things,” he said.
Mitti Labs’ initial funding was co-led by Lightspeed and Voyager, with initial support from Harvard Innovation Labs.
