Fixing climate change is no small task, as carbon removal developers like Mitti Labs can attest. This New York-based startup has developed technology to measure methane released by rice paddies. They use this technology to train hundreds of thousands of farmers in climate-friendly practices. This high-touch endeavor is the type of project venture capitalists typically avoid.
Mitti has managed to raise funding by focusing on partnerships. The startup has begun working with The Nature Conservancy on a partnership to promote regenerative, no-burn agriculture. This is the latest in a string of deals that extend its reach. Mitti will use its AI-powered models to measure, report, and verify the work done by the nonprofit’s workers on the ground in India. There, they are helping farmers implement a range of climate-friendly practices. Most of the project operations on the ground are led by locals from the villages where these projects are implemented.
While Mitti’s main operations focus on developing projects that reduce methane from rice farming, the company is working to offer more software features to third parties. They can measure Scope 3 emissions from other project developers or corporations that work with rice farmers. This software-as-a-service solution is available to anyone already running projects on the ground.
Mitti is not alone in pursuing this SaaS-partnership approach. Another company, Mati Carbon, develops measurement, reporting, and verification software for enhanced rock weathering, a process that removes carbon and fertilizes soil.
Methane reduction projects generate carbon credits, which Mitti tracks using its software. The company takes a percentage of the credits’ sale and passes the remainder on to farmers and the community. Farmers typically see about a 15% improvement in their bottom line by joining these programs. For smallholder farmers who often operate on the edge of profitability, this additional revenue can be very meaningful.
Mitti’s software studies various signals from rice farms to determine how much methane they release throughout the growing season. Rice farming is distinct because the fields are flooded for much of the year. This creates anaerobic, oxygen-free conditions in the soil that foster microbes which generate methane. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, warming the planet 82 times more than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Rice farming is a significant source of human-caused methane emissions, contributing around 10% to 12% of the total.
Mitti’s main data sources are satellite imagery and radar, which can penetrate clouds, plants, water, and soil to determine what is happening underground where the microbes live. This information is fed into AI models trained on satellite data and the results of extensive field studies.
Smallholders play a large role in Indian agriculture, with the average farm size being just one hectare. Monitoring each farm with physical equipment would be cost-prohibitive. Remotely sensed data helps keep verification costs reasonable, and partnerships help bring climate-friendly practices to millions of farmers. Ninety percent of rice is grown in Asia, and outside of China, the majority of rice-growing regions have similar smallholder farmer dynamics. A deep partnership with The Nature Conservancy allows Mitti to develop tools that can then be used for many other programs in the region.