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How one AI startup is helping rice farmers battle climate change

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How one AI startup is helping rice farmers battle climate change Tim De Chant AM PDT · August 26, 2025 Fixing climate change is no small task — just ask carbon removal developers like Mitti Labs.

The New York-based startup has developed technology to measure how much methane is released

So how has Mitti managed to raise funding from its investors? In short: partnerships.

Mitti has started working with The Nature Conservancy on a partnership to promote regenerative, no-burn agriculture, the startup exclusively told TechCrunch, the latest in a string of deals that extend its reach. Mitti will use its AI-powered models to measure, report, and verify the work done

“Most of the project operations on the ground are from locals from the villages where these projects are being implemented,” co-founder Xavier Laguarta told TechCrunch.

While Mitti’s main operations currently focus on developing projects that reduce the amount of methane generated

“We can measure Scope 3 emissions from other project developers or corporations that are working with rice farmers,” Laguarta said, referring to emissions that an organization does not directly control. “Anyone who’s already running projects on the ground, that’s sort of like a SaaS solution that we can offer them.”

Mitti isn’t alone in chasing the SaaS-partnership angle. Mati Carbon, which recently won the Xprize Carbon grand prize, develops measurement, reporting, and verification software for enhanced rock weathering, in which minerals spread on farm fields both remove carbon and fertilize the soil.

Methane reduction projects generate carbon credits, which Mitti tracks using its software. The company takes a percentage of the credits’ sale and passes the remainder on to farmers and the community, he said. “Usually, farmers will see about a 15% improvement in their bottom line

Mitti’s software studies various signals from rice farms to determine how much methane they release throughout the growing season. Rice farming is distinct from many other types of agriculture because the fields are flooded for much of the year. This creates anaerobic, or oxygen-free conditions, in the soil, which foster the growth and metabolism of a suite of microbes that generate methane.

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, warming the planet 82 times more than the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Rice farming is a large

Mitti’s main data

Smallholders play a large role in agriculture in India; the average farm size is one hectare (about 2.5 acres). Monitoring each with physical equipment would be cost-prohibitive. The remotely sensed data helps keep verification costs reasonable, and the partnerships help bring climate-friendly practices to millions of farmers.

“Ninety percent of rice is grown in Asia, and outside of potentially China, the majority of rice growing regions have these similar smallholder farmer dynamics,” Laguarta said. “A deep partnership that we have with the Nature Conservancy allows us to develop these tools that can then be used for a lot of other programs in the region.”

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Tim De Chant Senior

Tim De Chant is a senior climate

De Chant is also a lecturer in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, and he was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, during which time he studied climate technologies and explored new business models for journalism. He received his PhD in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BA degree in environmental studies, English, and biology from St. Olaf College.

You can contact or verify outreach from Tim

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