Farmers Reaping Significant Benefits From Carbon Credits, Conventional Revenue No longer Only Source of Income

Agriculture's conventional revenue is no longer the only source of income. Almost 500 farmers in north coastal Andhra Pradesh are now reaping the benefits of carbon credits obtained via environmentally friendly agroforestry practices.

In reality, all these are small and marginal farmers, cultivating these crops on degraded terrain.

Veda Climate Change Solutions Ltd., an enviro-social company, is implementing a project registered with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, and Visakhapatnam, as well as three districts in Odisha.

Veda has collaborated on this project with a paper production firm in Rayagada. The World Bank is assisting with the technical aspects of the project.

Veda & World Bank into an emission reduction purchase agreement

Veda and the World Bank entered into an emission reduction purchase agreement for this project, which began in 2004 and will last until 2034.

For the very first time in 2012, the farmers who took part in this unique project received carbon revenue from the sale of temporary certified emission reductions (tCERs). Following the second verification, the UNFCCC CDM board released 62,756 CERs in March 2020. The World Bank has released carbon revenue for this reason, which was handed to participating farmers on Tuesday in Visakhapatnam.

VCCSL has conceptualized a unique grouped project 'meant to enhance rural livelihoods through carbon sequestration by implementing agroforestry practices and nature-based solutions' to bring 30,000 more hectares of land under agroforestry, according to Dr. M Satyanarayana, a retired IFS officer and president of Veda, who spoke to TOI.

"This will be done in collaboration with JK Paper Mills Ltd, Rayagada, under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS)."

The goal of the project is to replicate and scale up our groundbreaking technology so that more resource-poor farmers can profit and degraded areas can be put to productive use. Satyanarayana stated, "We want to reproduce the idea throughout the country."