Agricultural carbon credit and green fertilizer projects expand in India and Nepal

Pharmaceutical giant GSK has entered into an eight-year emission reduction purchase agreement (ERPA) with Earthly and carbon removal provider Varaha. The project focuses on expanding regenerative agriculture across 50,000 hectares of smallholder farmland in the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana. By transitioning from traditional methods like crop residue burning and intensive tillage to direct seed drilling and reduced tillage, the initiative aims to sequester carbon in soil and reduce particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions.

In a separate development, Tokyo-based Green Carbon has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Himalayan Carbon Asset (HCA) to develop green fertilizer production in Nepal. The collaboration aims to utilize Nepal’s abundant hydropower resources to manufacture low-carbon urea and calcium ammonium nitrate. This project seeks to reduce reliance on imported chemical fertilizers and lower greenhouse gas emissions through the production of sustainable agricultural materials and the subsequent creation of carbon credits.

Both initiatives represent growing corporate and technological efforts to integrate carbon credit generation with agricultural sustainability and industrial decarbonization in South Asia.