Global customer relationship management solutions provider Salesforce has announced a significant new agreement with agricultural methane emissions reduction startup Mitti Labs. Under the terms of the multi-year accord, Salesforce has committed to purchasing 500,000 carbon credits over the next five years. These credits will be generated from targeted projects that empower tens of thousands of smallholder farmers across India to adopt sustainable agricultural practices specifically designed to slash methane emissions from rice cultivation.
The partnership represents a major step forward for corporate climate action, highlighting the growing emphasis on high-integrity, data-verified agricultural offsets. Rice cultivation is an essential global food source, but traditional farming methods carry a heavy environmental footprint. The practice typically involves continuously flooding paddy fields, creating oxygen-depleted soils that generate methane. According to environmental data, rice production accounts for approximately 12 percent of global methane emissions, positioning it as the second-largest source of agricultural methane emissions right behind livestock farming.
To combat this, climate-smart rice farming implements alternate wetting and drying practices, commonly known as AWD. This technique allows paddy fields to dry periodically during specific phases of the growing cycle. By introducing oxygen back into the soil, the practice dramatically curbs methane emissions. Research shows that AWD can reduce methane emissions by up to 50 percent and simultaneously cut water use by up to 40 percent, all without negatively impacting crop yields or farmer livelihoods.
This latest agreement builds directly upon Salesforce’s ongoing participation in broader corporate coalitions targeting short-lived climate pollutants. Earlier this year, Salesforce joined forces with other major technology and financial enterprises—including Amazon, Autodesk, Figma, Google, JPMorganChase, and Workday—to launch the Superpollutant Action Initiative. That collaborative effort is aimed at channeling $100 million into innovative solutions designed to accelerate the reduction of superpollutants globally.
According to assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, superpollutants are responsible for nearly half of all global warming experienced to date. This category includes potent warming gases such as methane, which are released from various human activities, including agriculture and waste management. Eliminating these elements is widely regarded by climate scientists as one of the most powerful and immediate near-term tools available to address global climate change. While most superpollutants typically remain suspended in the atmosphere for a much shorter duration than carbon dioxide, they possess the capacity to trap heat tens to thousands of times more powerfully.
Dr. Jamila Yamani, Director of Climate and Energy at Salesforce, emphasized the strategic importance of the new agreement in the context of near-term climate stabilization. She noted that reducing superpollutant emissions remains one of the most effective pathways to slow near-term warming, adding that the company is deeply committed to directing financial capital toward high-impact mitigation efforts. She further highlighted that curbing methane emissions from rice farming represents a highly scalable climate solution that simultaneously helps preserve vital water resources for future generations.
Founded in 2023, Mitti Labs has quickly emerged as an innovator in the agricultural technology sector. The startup develops advanced solutions leveraging artificial intelligence, satellite technology, and rigorous field operations to systematically reduce both methane emissions and water consumption associated with rice farming. Central to their operations is the company’s GeoAI platform, which was developed with technical support from NASA. This sophisticated platform utilizes advanced satellite radar imagery alongside comprehensive field-collected data to continuously monitor flooding patterns, soil moisture levels, and overall crop health. By combining these data streams, Mitti Labs can provide the verifiable evidence required to back the emissions reductions associated with its carbon credits.
Beyond its immediate climate benefits, the partnership with Salesforce is projected to deliver extraordinary gains in water conservation. Mitti Labs estimates that the agreement will save approximately 700 billion liters of water. To put this staggering figure into perspective, it is roughly equivalent to 18 months of Bengaluru’s total annual water supply. Such massive water savings play a critical role in alleviating mounting pressure on stressed groundwater resources, particularly in regions where agricultural, urban, and industrial water users are locked in fierce competition for scarce supplies.
Building on its current momentum, Mitti Labs has set ambitious growth targets. The startup plans to scale its operations to issue two million carbon credits annually by the year 2028, with projects spanning across India and broader Southeast Asia.
This new contract with Salesforce closely follows another major milestone for Mitti Labs. In September 2026, the startup announced an agreement with Google for the purchase of one million carbon credits over a four-year period. That transaction marked Google’s largest superpollutant carbon credit agreement to date, cementing Mitti Labs’ reputation as a trusted provider in the voluntary carbon market.
Xavier Laguarta, co-founder at Mitti Labs, pointed out that modern carbon credit buyers are increasingly sophisticated, moving past generic offset purchases to demand radical transparency and measurable impact. He noted that corporations are no longer just asking what impact a project delivers, but how they can independently verify it for themselves. Having a corporate heavyweight like Salesforce join Google in backing rice methane reductions demonstrates that high-integrity, data-verified agricultural credits are rapidly becoming a foundational component of serious corporate climate offsetting strategies. Laguarta concluded that this latest agreement will enable the startup to reach tens of thousands more farmers, introducing sustainable practices that actively cut emissions, conserve precious water, and strengthen rural livelihoods.
