Salesforce Buys 500,000 Rice Methane Carbon Credits From Mitti Labs

Salesforce has signed an agreement to purchase 500,000 carbon credits over five years from Mitti Labs, an agricultural methane reduction startup that pays smallholder rice farmers in India to change irrigation practice. The deal, announced by the CRM software provider, ties one of the largest corporate buyers of offsets to a single project developer whose entire issuance pipeline currently rests on verified reductions in flooded paddy fields.

What does the credit purchase cover?

The credits will come from projects enabling tens of thousands of smallholder farmers in India to adopt practices that cut methane emissions from rice cultivation. Continuously flooded paddies account for roughly 12% of global methane emissions, making rice the second-largest agricultural methane source after livestock, according to figures cited in the announcement.

The core intervention is alternate wetting and drying, or AWD. Fields drain periodically during the growing cycle, which limits methane formation in oxygen-depleted soils. The practice can cut methane emissions by up to 50% and water use by up to 40% without affecting crop yields.

Beyond the emissions accounting, Mitti Labs said the agreement is expected to save 700 billion liters of water. That equals roughly 18 months of Bengaluru's annual water supply, a comparison that frames the deal in a region where agricultural, urban and industrial users compete for groundwater.

How are the reductions verified?

Mitti Labs, founded in 2023, builds its credits on a monitoring stack rather than paper attestations. The company combines artificial intelligence, satellite technology and field operations to track methane and water use in rice farming.

Its GeoAI platform, developed with support from NASA, uses satellite radar imagery alongside field-collected data to monitor flooding, soil moisture and crop health. That evidence base underpins verification of the emissions reductions attached to each credit. Buyer scrutiny of credit integrity is rising, and Mitti Labs positions its data pipeline as the answer.

Why superpollutants?

The IPCC attributes almost half of global warming to date to superpollutants, a category that includes methane from agriculture and waste. These gases persist in the atmosphere for shorter periods than CO2 but trap heat tens to thousands of times more effectively. That asymmetry makes their elimination one of the most powerful near-term levers on warming.

Jamila Yamani, PhD, Director of Climate & Energy at Salesforce, said:

"We know that superpollutant reduction is one of the best ways to slow near-term warming, and we are committed to directing capital toward high-impact mitigation efforts. Reducing methane emissions from rice farming is a scalable climate solution that also helps preserve water resources for future generations."

The agreement follows Salesforce's participation earlier this year in the launch of the Superpollutant Action Initiative, alongside Amazon, Autodesk, Figma, Google, JPMorganChase and Workday. That initiative aims to channel $100 million toward superpollutant reduction solutions.

What happens next?

Mitti Labs plans to issue 2 million carbon credits annually by 2028 from projects in India and Southeast Asia. The Salesforce contract locks in a quarter of that annual target over five years, assuming issuance scales on schedule.

The deal is the second large corporate offtake for the startup. Google signed an agreement with Mitti Labs in September 2026 for one million credits over four years, which the tech company described as its largest superpollutant carbon credit deal to date.

Xavier Laguarta, co-founder at Mitti Labs, said:

"Carbon credit buyers are increasingly asking not just what impact a project delivers, but how they can see it for themselves. Having Salesforce join Google in backing rice methane reductions shows that high-integrity, data-verified agricultural credits are becoming a core part of serious climate offsetting strategies. This agreement lets us reach tens of thousands more farmers with practices that cut emissions, save water and strengthen livelihoods."

The milestone to watch is 2028. If Mitti Labs hits its 2 million annual issuance target with satellite-verified data, agricultural methane credits move from niche experiment to a measurable commodity stream in corporate offset portfolios.