Carbon farming in India: are the existing projects inclusive, additional, and permanent?

As voluntary carbon markets gain popularity, carbon farming emerges as a win-win strategy to mitigate climate change and improve farmers’ income in developing countries. India, with over 50 active carbon farming projects and an impending domestic carbon market, forms an ideal case to explore the ear...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Adeeth AG Cariappa, Krishna, Vijesh V.
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Informa UK Limited 2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/158344
_version_ 1855542232583503872
author Adeeth AG Cariappa
Krishna, Vijesh V.
author_browse Adeeth AG Cariappa
Krishna, Vijesh V.
author_facet Adeeth AG Cariappa
Krishna, Vijesh V.
author_sort Adeeth AG Cariappa
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description As voluntary carbon markets gain popularity, carbon farming emerges as a win-win strategy to mitigate climate change and improve farmers’ income in developing countries. India, with over 50 active carbon farming projects and an impending domestic carbon market, forms an ideal case to explore the early-stage challenges of these initiatives. Using survey data from 841 farmers from seven carbon farming project villages in Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, this study focused on socio-economic inclusion and adherence to additionality and permanence principles, which are underexplored in the existing literature. We found that carbon farmers were predominantly large-holders and from non-marginalized castes, showing patterns of systematic exclusion. Only 4% of participants were women. Around 99% of farmers had not received any monetary benefit. While certain agricultural practices predated carbon projects, raising concerns about additionality, practices like no-tillage, alternate wetting and drying, intercropping, reduced chemical fertilizers, micro-irrigation, and tree planting aligned with additionality principles. Nonetheless, a high disadoption rate (28%) raises concerns about the permanence of emissions reduction. Our findings also indicated that companies that exclusively focus on carbon credits, termed ‘Carbon Core’ companies in this study, were more efficient in spreading regenerative agricultural practices than subsidiaries or offshoots of larger corporations whose primary businesses are unrelated to carbon credits.
format Journal Article
id CGSpace158344
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2025
publishDateRange 2025
publishDateSort 2025
publisher Informa UK Limited
publisherStr Informa UK Limited
record_format dspace
spelling CGSpace1583442025-10-26T12:50:42Z Carbon farming in India: are the existing projects inclusive, additional, and permanent? Adeeth AG Cariappa Krishna, Vijesh V. carbon social inclusion climate change farm surveys As voluntary carbon markets gain popularity, carbon farming emerges as a win-win strategy to mitigate climate change and improve farmers’ income in developing countries. India, with over 50 active carbon farming projects and an impending domestic carbon market, forms an ideal case to explore the early-stage challenges of these initiatives. Using survey data from 841 farmers from seven carbon farming project villages in Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, this study focused on socio-economic inclusion and adherence to additionality and permanence principles, which are underexplored in the existing literature. We found that carbon farmers were predominantly large-holders and from non-marginalized castes, showing patterns of systematic exclusion. Only 4% of participants were women. Around 99% of farmers had not received any monetary benefit. While certain agricultural practices predated carbon projects, raising concerns about additionality, practices like no-tillage, alternate wetting and drying, intercropping, reduced chemical fertilizers, micro-irrigation, and tree planting aligned with additionality principles. Nonetheless, a high disadoption rate (28%) raises concerns about the permanence of emissions reduction. Our findings also indicated that companies that exclusively focus on carbon credits, termed ‘Carbon Core’ companies in this study, were more efficient in spreading regenerative agricultural practices than subsidiaries or offshoots of larger corporations whose primary businesses are unrelated to carbon credits. 2025-05-28 2024-10-31T15:51:16Z 2024-10-31T15:51:16Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/158344 en Open Access application/pdf Informa UK Limited Cariappa, A. A. G., & Krishna, V. V. (2024). Carbon farming in India: Are the existing projects inclusive, additional, and permanent? Climate Policy. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2024.2416497
spellingShingle carbon
social inclusion
climate change
farm surveys
Adeeth AG Cariappa
Krishna, Vijesh V.
Carbon farming in India: are the existing projects inclusive, additional, and permanent?
title Carbon farming in India: are the existing projects inclusive, additional, and permanent?
title_full Carbon farming in India: are the existing projects inclusive, additional, and permanent?
title_fullStr Carbon farming in India: are the existing projects inclusive, additional, and permanent?
title_full_unstemmed Carbon farming in India: are the existing projects inclusive, additional, and permanent?
title_short Carbon farming in India: are the existing projects inclusive, additional, and permanent?
title_sort carbon farming in india are the existing projects inclusive additional and permanent
topic carbon
social inclusion
climate change
farm surveys
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/158344
work_keys_str_mv AT adeethagcariappa carbonfarminginindiaaretheexistingprojectsinclusiveadditionalandpermanent
AT krishnavijeshv carbonfarminginindiaaretheexistingprojectsinclusiveadditionalandpermanent