Amazon to buy carbon credits from Bayer’s TGRA sustainable rice project in India
Amazon will act as the primary buyer of carbon credits generated by Bayer’s TGRA program to cut methane emissions from rice farming in India.
The Good Rice Alliance, or TGRA, said on April 22, 2026, that it has entered into a long-term agreement with Amazon for the purchase of carbon credits generated by its sustainable rice farming program in India. According to The Hindu BusinessLine, the project is focused on reducing methane emissions from rice cultivation and already involves more than 13,000 small farmers across 35,000 hectares in multiple Indian states. For the farm sector, it is a notable example of climate-finance mechanisms being tied directly to field-level production systems.
TGRA said Amazon will serve as the primary buyer during the initial crediting phase and that its commitment covers more than 685,000 metric tons of carbon credits in CO2 equivalent. That matters not only for Amazon’s climate procurement strategy but also because it creates long-term demand for a program that is trying to prove methane reduction in rice can be measured, verified, and scaled while still remaining operationally relevant for farmers.
TGRA is a Bayer-owned company and builds on a multiyear feasibility study and pilot effort previously carried out with GenZero and Shell Nature-Based Solutions. According to the report, those earlier phases established the technical, scientific, and operational base for a larger rice methane mitigation program. Continued participation by GenZero and Shell in the long-term program remains subject to the necessary regulatory approvals.
A major part of the project is its measurement, reporting, and verification framework. TGRA says emission reductions are quantified through a combination of direct field methane measurements, records of practice change, independent remote-sensing validation, and biogeochemical modeling. Direct methane measurements are being conducted in collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute. Verification is aligned with Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard using the VM0051 methodology for improved rice management.
The commercial significance is that the program is trying to connect climate value with practical on-farm change. TGRA is positioning the project not only as a methane-reduction initiative but also as a way to support more water-efficient operations for thousands of smallholders. If the model proves scalable and its verification remains credible, it could become an important reference point for rice farming, where pressure is rising for measurable sustainability outcomes, stronger data transparency, and credible monetization of environmental performance.