Global biopharmaceutical enterprise GSK has entered into an eight-year emissions reduction purchase agreement with carbon removal developer Varaha and nature-tech company Earthly to expand regenerative agriculture across 50,000 hectares of smallholder farmland in northern India.
The initiative targets agricultural regions across the states of Punjab and Haryana, replacing seasonal crop residue burning—a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution across the Indo-Gangetic Plain—with sustainable soil management practices.
Transitioning away from conventional residue burning, intensive tillage, and flood-irrigated rice transplanting, the project introduces Direct Seeded Rice (DSR), reduced tillage, and residue incorporation into agricultural soils. Participating smallholders receive subsidised machinery access and a direct share of carbon credit revenues, which has increased average household incomes by 12 to 16 per cent during initial project phases.
Key operational metrics and governance standards include:
- Emissions & pollution mitigation: During its initial 42,000-hectare monitoring phase, the project prevented 4,574 tonnes of PM2.5 releases and saved roughly 59.5 billion litres of irrigation water.
- Carbon credit volume & delivery: The project is projected to generate approximately 100,000 tonnes of soil carbon removal credits annually between 2028 and 2033, addressing roughly 7 per cent of GSK’s forecasted residual emissions as part of its goal to reduce operational carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2030 against a 2020 baseline.
- Registry & quality certification: Registered under Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard using methodology VM0042, the project is upgrading to version 2.2 to align with the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market’s (ICVCM) Core Carbon Principles (CCP). Earthly also applied its independent Keystone 3.0 due diligence framework to verify carbon, biodiversity, and community impacts.
Madhur Jain, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Varaha, stated: “India burns roughly 100 million tonnes of crop residue a year. It burns because for a smallholder with a few days between harvest and sowing, fire is free and every alternative costs money. We work with more than 200,000 farming families and the lesson is consistent: burning stops when the alternative pays. Credit revenue pays for the equipment and the extra labour.”
Adele Cheli, Vice President of Environmental Sustainability at GSK, added: “For GSK, environmental sustainability is core to business resilience and human health. This investment demonstrates how we’re progressing in our net-zero journey, whilst also delivering co-benefits for human health, nature and local communities.”
Lorenzo Curci, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Earthly, noted: “This deal shows long-term corporate commitments are still firmly on the agenda for leading corporates and that securing credits from projects that deliver across multiple social and biodiversity outcomes is critical.”
