The agreement will support rice farmers across Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, with the project expected to cover about 100,000 hectares at peak delivery, according to Mitti Labs co-founder Xavier Laguarta.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
The deal is centred on farming techniques designed to reduce the amount of time rice fields remain continuously flooded. Because flooded rice fields generate methane as organic matter decomposes in oxygen-deprived conditions, reducing the duration of flooding can significantly lower emissions while also conserving water.
Mitti Labs estimates that the approach can reduce methane emissions by about 50 per cent and irrigation water consumption by roughly 40 per cent without reducing rice yields.
Google seeks carbon solutions amid rising emissions
The agreement comes as Google continues its efforts to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030 while rapidly expanding its artificial-intelligence infrastructure.
The technology giant’s greenhouse gas emissions increased by 18 per cent year-on-year in 2025 to approximately 14.5 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to the company’s environmental report released in June.
Against that backdrop, Google has been exploring carbon-credit projects capable of addressing emissions while producing additional environmental benefits.
Laguarta said Mitti Labs began discussions with Google about a year ago as the technology company considered adding methane-reduction projects to its carbon-credit portfolio.
He said Google was attracted partly by the project’s water-saving benefits and Mitti Labs’ ability to deploy the model at scale.
Technology tracks smallholder farms
Founded in 2023, Mitti Labs operates from New York and Bengaluru and has developed a GeoAI platform designed to monitor agricultural activity across smallholder farms.
The platform combines satellite radar imagery with field measurements to remotely monitor crop growth, soil moisture and flooding.
According to Laguarta, the startup uses synthetic aperture radar imagery from both commercial and public satellites, with resolutions ranging from 50 centimetres to 10 metres. Proprietary field data collected by the company is also used to train its artificial-intelligence models.
The technology is intended to provide a way of monitoring farming practices and verifying emissions reductions across large numbers of small farms, a process that can otherwise be difficult and expensive to conduct manually.
Google's assessment of the project included scrutiny of Mitti Labs' monitoring technology as well as visits to participating farms before the agreement was signed, Laguarta said.
Water savings add to climate benefits
Beyond carbon reductions, Mitti Labs says its projects have saved more than 500 billion litres of water during the past two years.
The company believes the combination of methane reduction and water conservation gives rice-farming projects a broader environmental value, particularly in regions where agricultural water demand is placing increasing pressure on supplies.
Laguarta said the Google agreement would give the startup the resources and credibility needed to expand its operations and work with more large corporate buyers.
“Having Google, one of the most sophisticated buyers in the market with rigorous due diligence processes, is obviously a good signal for us,” Laguarta said.
He added that the agreement would enable Mitti Labs to “scale significantly.”
Carbon credits to undergo independent verification
The carbon credits being purchased by Google can be issued under either Gold Standard or Isometric, two carbon-credit certification organisations, Laguarta said.
Before credits are issued, projects undergo independent third-party verification as part of the certification process.
The verification process is particularly significant in agricultural carbon projects, where demonstrating that emissions reductions have actually occurred across large and dispersed farming communities can present substantial monitoring challenges.
Mitti Labs currently works with more than 100,000 farmers and has set an ambition of reaching millions of farmers by 2030.
The company counts carbon marketplace Cool Effect, rice producer Ebro Foods and agricultural company Syngenta among its other customers. Laguarta said the Google transaction represents the startup's largest carbon-credit offtake agreement so far.
Farmers to receive majority of project revenue
A significant share of the revenue generated from Mitti Labs' projects goes to farming communities, Laguarta said.
However, he declined to disclose how much farmers participating in the Google-backed project would receive.
The company's model relies on farmers adopting practices that reduce the duration of flooding in rice fields, with the resulting emissions reductions measured and converted into carbon credits that can be sold to companies seeking to address their emissions.
The Google purchase is expected to help Mitti Labs expand its farmer network and develop additional projects.
Expansion beyond India planned
Although the current agreement is focused on India, Mitti Labs has broader ambitions for Asia.
Laguarta said the startup plans to begin operations in the Philippines later this year, followed by expansion into Indonesia and other Southeast Asian markets in 2027.
He sees significant room for growth in the market because of the enormous scale of rice production across Asia.
About 150 million farmers grow rice across India, Southeast Asia and China, according to Laguarta, creating a potentially large market for agricultural methane-reduction projects.
Google expands carbon strategy in India
The Mitti Labs agreement is not Google's first major carbon-related investment in India.
In January 2025, Google partnered with Gurugram-based climate-tech company Varaha to purchase 100,000 tonnes of carbon credits. The transaction was Google's first large-scale carbon-removal purchase in India and was described as the largest involving biochar produced from biomass.
Google is also pursuing clean-energy projects in India as part of efforts to address emissions associated with its electricity consumption and supply chain.
The company has signed an agreement connected to a 150-megawatt solar project in Rajasthan, taking its contracted solar capacity with renewable-energy company ReNew in the state to 300 megawatts.
For Mitti Labs, however, the latest agreement represents more than a single corporate carbon purchase. The startup sees it as an opportunity to demonstrate that climate-focused agricultural technologies can operate at the scale required to make measurable reductions in emissions while delivering practical benefits to farmers.
With rice cultivation responsible for a significant share of agricultural methane emissions, the success of such projects could determine whether carbon markets become a meaningful source of funding for climate-smart farming across Asia.