New Delhi, December 23, 2023: Transform Rural India, TRI, in collaboration with Intellecap and ACORN (Rabobank), has launched a pioneering Carbon Credit Finance Project benefiting over 100,000 farmers in Jharkhand. This comes with no risk to the farmers or any required investment from them or the government. The project is founded on the principle of fair payment to farmers, wherein 80% of the generated carbon credit revenue will be directly transferred to the farmers' accounts.
The initiative targets all farmers in the state who have received support under the Birsa Harit Gram Yojana since 2018, facilitating their integration into the Rabobank ACORN platform. Predominantly women, these farmers have cultivated fruit orchards and local timber tree plantations across 100,000+ acres of rural land, with backing from the Government of Jharkhand under the Birsa Harit Gram Yojna of MGNREGA. These farmers will receive approximately 500 crore INR benefits for carbon removal over the next 20 years.
Ashok Kumar, Director, Farm Prosperity, Transform Rural India said, “At TRI we are excited about this pioneering Carbon Credit Finance Project with ACORN and Intellecap to support over 1 Lakh women smallholder farmers with support from the Jharkhand Govt. This will ensure an increase in income for smallholder farmers as well as support the state’s active role in developing a climate action plan and taking necessary steps to tackle climate change. This project aims to be the guide and champion of smallholder farmers from Jharkhand for climate/carbon finance.”
This project ensures the continued care of trees beyond the support period of the BHGY project by aiding smallholder farmers in securing additional financial support from carbon markets. The project's design inception began in December 2022, with the collaboration of implementation partners in support of the Jharkhand government.
In addition to carbon credits, the partners will explore avenues to provide additional benefits to farmers through the Government of India Green Credit platform and other global biodiversity platforms. The project aims to ensure the proper maintenance of plantations, boost the income of smallholder farmers, and create local employment opportunities. Data collection and onboarding of BHGY farmers have already commenced, with over 150 farmers from the Bero and Angara blocks of the Ranchi district is under onboarding process. This project has got support from the Government of Jharkhand & Rural Development Department (GoJ).
Intellecap and Transform Rural India (TRI) had developed the climate action platform in January this year, to increase farmers' income and build the resilience of their agricultural practices against different climate change impacts.
Santosh K. Singh, Managing Director - Agri and Climate, Intellecap said, “We are committed to increasing smallholder farmers’ income and transitioning them to climate-smart agriculture. By supporting Climate finance, specifically carbon finance enables this transition to profitable and climate-resilient agriculture practices. We also are looking at the ecosystem that is needed for achieving this and the platform works with government agencies, investors and corporates to help smallholder farmers."
