Rice is the staple food for more than half of the world's population. Demand is also growing as the population in South and Southeast Asia grows. However, a significant portion of rice production still relies on traditional cultivation methods, which emits large amounts of methane, a major contributor to climate change. Methane is about 30 times more effective at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, but dissipates faster than carbon dioxide. Rice production also requires large amounts of freshwater, about 3,000 liters per kilogram of rice, or 20 million liters per hectare of rice farmland.
Mitti Labs aims to use its technology solutions to reduce methane emissions and water waste in rice cultivation. Co-founded by Harvard Business School graduates Xavier Laguarta and Devdutt Dalal, the company aims to use high-resolution satellite imagery, above-ground gas chambers and other technologies to reduce methane emissions by 50% and water consumption by 30%, and has raised $3 million in equity funding to date.
The startup, which is headquartered in New York City with a subsidiary in Bengaluru, India, was founded in May last year and chose India as its primary market. India is the world's second-largest rice producer, but the livelihoods of rice farmers there face imminent threats from climate change, which has resulted in significant declines in water levels and increases in the amount of methane in the atmosphere.
Laguarta and Dalal met while studying for their MBA at Harvard Business School and conceived the idea for Mitti Labs last year. Prior to starting the startup, Laguarta had experience in sustainability consulting and Dalal worked in the food and agricultural supply chain. They were joined by a third co-founder, Nathan Torvik, who serves as chief technology officer.
“There's been a lot of work done in agriculture — regenerative agriculture is a hot topic around the world — but the number of people working specifically on rice is much smaller than most other crops,” Laguarta said in an interview.
Mitti Labs co-founders Nathan Torbick, Xavier Laguarta, and Devdut Dalal (left to right) Image courtesy of Mitti Labs
Measuring emissions and selling carbon credits
Rice accounts for about half of all greenhouse gas emissions from farmland, including 30% of agricultural methane emissions. However, farmers can significantly reduce methane emissions from rice cultivation by improving water management and alternating wet and dry periods.
Mitti Labs has partnered with non-profit organisations Syngenta Foundation, Dr Reddy's Foundation and Spanish food processing company Ebro Foods to set up five projects across India to help farmers adopt and implement sustainable farming practices, avoid stubble burning and use limited water. The rice projects will cover an area of 30,000 hectares and contribute to reducing 120,000 tonnes of CO2e emissions, according to the startup.
Mitti Labs aims to work with over 40,000 smallholder farmers to embed and measure sustainable agricultural practices, which not only improve the environmental aspects of rice cultivation but also help farmers earn income from carbon credits that the startup sells on the market on their behalf, potentially increasing their annual income by up to 30%.
Convincing smallholder farmers to embrace new technologies can be difficult as they are often hesitant to move away from traditional practices, but Dalal told TechCrunch that Mitti Lab offers support and advice to farmers, and provides regular touchpoints through its local implementation partners.
“Our teams work with implementing partners to continuously improve our proposals to farmers. What works in one village may not work in another, so the behaviour change elements have to be very targeted and fully aligned with the needs of the local community,” he said.
On the tech side, Mitti Labs uses a remote sensing platform that uses satellite imagery to help measure climate impacts. The startup buys high-resolution imagery captured using synthetic aperture radar from SAOCOM and Umbra, and fuses it with publicly available satellite imagery to understand farmers' practices. The high-resolution images are obtained through SAR, which uses different wavelengths to penetrate objects on the Earth's surface, measuring properties such as water levels, soil moisture, and plant growth.
In addition to satellite imagery, Mitty Labs uses ground-based greenhouse gas chambers to capture the fluxes of methane and nitrous oxide emissions at the site. Data from these chambers is fed into software models and processed by a third-party lab to calculate emissions.
When it comes to carbon credits, Mitty Labs has been working with Cornell University, the International Rice Research Institute, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for about 12 months, experimenting with satellite imagery and gas chamber data to test and refine measurement techniques so buyers in Europe and the U.S. can buy carbon credits with confidence.
Mitti Labs is currently partnering with Gold Standard to issue carbon credits, but Laguarta told TechCrunch that the startup may expand into Verra as it scales.
Converting carbon credits into actual money will take some time; Laguarta said Mitti Labs is currently in the due diligence phase for its launched projects. But the goal is for farmers to earn at least 70% of their farm income through sustainable agricultural practices; the rest will be split between Mitti Labs' partners and the startup itself.
Mitti Lab works with local implementation partners to provide regular touchpoints to rice farmers. Image credit: Mitti Lab
The success of the first five projects will help Mitti Labs expand its presence: the startup is already working on over 10 projects and plans to expand geographically to enter Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam.
Laguarta told TechCrunch that Mitti Labs has already found “the right local partners” in the new market and is in discussions with project investors and carbon offset buyers to fund local projects, with the plan to start the project at the end of 2024 or sometime in 2025. But the startup continues to see India as a focus market.
“India is our first market and we see it as a market where we have a strong passion to make an impact,” Laguarta said.
Mitti Labs is not the only startup enabling sustainable agriculture in India — RTP Global-backed Varaha is another incumbent in the space — but most of these startups aren't crop-focused, according to Laguarta.
“If you're trying to do five different things, I think that's a good strategy for some people. For us, the key is we want to be the best at rice, we think we should have people who are the best at agroforestry, people who are the best at biochar and other areas,” he said.
Mitti Labs' initial funding was co-led by Lightspeed and Voyager, with initial support from Harvard Innovation Labs.