Grow Indigo’s first Gold Standard-registered project, delivering measurable water savings and livelihood benefits for farmers in Telangana
New Delhi, September 28, 2026
Grow Indigo has reached a new milestone in its carbon portfolio with the successful Gold Standard registration of Kanika (GS23290), formally titled “Promoting Regenerative Agriculture for Nature (PRAN),” a rice methane project in Telangana.
Conceptualised in May 2024, Kanika is Grow Indigo’s first rice methane project registered under the Gold Standard Rice Methodology, and the company’s first registered Gold Standard project. The project is also aligned with Core Carbon Principle (CCP) requirements. The project successfully reached Gold Standard registration, achieving our fastest turnaround to date.
Kanika covers a credit eligible area of more than 6,000 hectares across four districts in Telangana — Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Suryapet, and Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri. The project has a five-year crediting period with two renewals, running from June 2024 to May 2039, with an expected operational lifetime of 20 years.
Farmers participating in Kanika adopted direct-seeded rice (DSR) and alternate/intermittent wetting and drying (AWD/IWD) practices, which reduce methane emissions from paddy cultivation. Expected water saving from these practices is approximately 6,420 m³/ha/season. The project is also aligned with five UN Sustainable Development Goals, tracking indicators across sustainable agriculture, skill development, women in leadership roles, employment, and climate change mitigation.
Through this process, the team built strong in-house expertise in the Gold Standard methodology, review process, and requirement interpretation capability that strengthens Grow Indigo’s readiness for future registrations and issuances.
Dr. Usha Zehr, Executive Director, Grow Indigo, said, “Registering Kanika under a new methodology gave our team the opportunity to build deep expertise from the ground up. Completing this in two PRR rounds and four months reflects the rigor and commitment of everyone who worked on it. We now look forward to carrying this momentum into verification.”
Kanika now moves into its verification phase. This milestone reflects the work of teams across conceptualisation, field implementation, quantification, documentation, and review.
Grow Indigo continues to expand its portfolio of nature-based climate solutions across India, working with smallholder farmers to deliver credible, high-integrity carbon outcomes alongside improved soil health and farm resilience.
For more information, contact: carbon.sales@growindigo.co.in
