For decades, India’s small farmers have faced a difficult cycle of declining soil fertility, rising input costs, unpredictable weather, and shrinking profits. Yet beneath their feet lies one of the world’s biggest untapped climate solutions: healthy soil.
Recognising this opportunity, three entrepreneurs launched Varaha in 2022, a climate-tech company that helps farmers adopt practices that improve soil health while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In return, farmers can earn an additional income through carbon credits. Companies such as Google and Microsoft purchase these credits to offset their emissions, and a share of that revenue goes directly to the farmers.
Today, more than two lakh farmers across India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Côte d’Ivoire are part of this model. More than one lakh of them participate through Varaha’s flagship regenerative agriculture and afforestation programmes alone. From the very first year, they gain an additional source of income while gradually restoring the health of their land.
The idea was born from a gap in climate finance
Long before Varaha was incorporated in 2022, its founders kept running into the same problem. Farmers were being encouraged to adopt sustainable farming practices, but there was very little financial support to make the transition worthwhile.
Ankita Garg had spent years working at Bayer and Monsanto, where she witnessed the stark contrast between well-resourced farms in developed countries and India’s smallholder farmers, many of whom were struggling with shrinking profits and increasingly unpredictable weather.
Varaha works not only across India but also in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Côte d’Ivoire, partnering with farming communities that face many of the same challenges, including soil degradation, climate uncertainty, and unstable farm incomes. Photograph: (Varaha.earth)
At the same time, Madhur Jain was working with Precision Development (PxD), helping scale digital advisory services to millions of farmers across India. Vishal Kuchanur brought the technological expertise needed to build solutions that could work across vast and fragmented agricultural landscapes.
Together, they realised that India’s farmers were sitting on an untapped opportunity.
Healthy soil naturally absorbs and stores carbon from the atmosphere, helping slow climate change. Yet India’s nearly 150 million smallholder farmers remained largely excluded from the financial benefits linked to these environmental gains. Their landholdings were small and scattered, monitoring was expensive, and there was no system that could bring millions of farmers into the carbon economy.
“So we built a model where regenerative practices generate carbon credits, that credit income makes adoption worthwhile from year one, and improving soil fertility steadily lifts yields over a five-year arc,” says Madhur Jain, CEO and co-founder of Varaha.
That idea became the foundation of Varaha.
The company’s name is inspired by the Varaha avatar of Lord Vishnu, who, according to Hindu mythology, rescued the Earth from the cosmic ocean and restored it. For the founders, the name reflects their mission of helping farmers restore degraded land while improving their livelihoods.
Throughout 2021, the founders immersed themselves in understanding carbon markets and learning what would encourage farming communities to adopt sustainable practices. After months of research, Ankita and her co-founders formally incorporated Varaha in Gurugram, Haryana, in March 2022.
Within months, the startup had begun working with farmers across multiple states, building a model that linked healthier soils with better incomes.
How it actually works on the ground
Varaha’s work begins with people.
Field teams, NGOs, and local partners visit villages to explain the programme face-to-face to build trust. They walk farmers through what changes they would need to make, how the process works, and what they could earn in return.
Once a farmer signs up, their land is mapped, and key details such as crop type and existing farming practices are recorded using Vann, Varaha’s mobile application. Designed for rural conditions, the app works even in areas with patchy internet connectivity.
The next step is a soil assessment.
This helps Varaha understand what each plot of land needs. Depending on the condition of the soil, farmers may be encouraged to adopt practices such as reduced tillage, biochar application, agroforestry, or enhanced rock weathering.
Based on these recommendations, Varaha provides the support needed to help farmers make the transition. This could include supplying saplings for tree planting, biochar for soil application, or machinery required for reduced tillage.
Healthy soil naturally absorbs and stores carbon from the atmosphere, helping slow climate change. Photograph: (Varaha.earth)
“For a farmer, the practice itself isn’t complicated — it’s often a small tweak to what they already do. What was missing was someone to guide them through it and make the switch worth their while,” says Ankita Garg, COO and co-founder of Varaha.
The work does not stop once the new practices are adopted.
Throughout the growing season, satellites capture repeated images of every enrolled farm. These images are analysed using artificial intelligence (AI) to verify whether the recommended practices are actually being followed.
“Our zero-trust dMRV stack replaces periodic, manual audits with continuous AI and satellite verification,” explains Vishal Kuchanur, CTO and co-founder of Varaha.
“Instead of someone visiting a farm once a year, we’re watching it almost every day, which makes the whole process far more reliable.”
Once the farming practices have been verified, scientific models estimate how much carbon has been removed from or prevented from entering the atmosphere. These estimates combine real soil samples with machine learning, eliminating the need to physically test every individual plot.
The results are then independently audited against internationally recognised standards. Once verified, carbon credits are issued through global registries such as Verra, Gold Standard, and Puro.earth.
“The science has to hold up to global scrutiny because these credits are used by some of the world’s largest companies,” says Madhur Jain.
“But the model only works if it also holds up for the farmer and if the money genuinely reaches them.”
Once the credits are sold, a share of the revenue is paid to the participating farmers. Payments are typically made from the first year itself. NGOs and field teams that helped implement the programme also receive a share for their work on the ground.
What does this mean for farmers?
For farmers, the benefits are both immediate and long-term.
In the short term, carbon-credit payments create an additional source of income. Over time, the farming practices themselves improve soil health, making farmland more fertile, productive, and resilient.
“Carbon credit income gives farmers a second revenue stream from year one, independent of the harvest, making the shift to regenerative practices viable without waiting for yields to recover,” says Madhur Jain.
For many smallholder farmers, whose earnings often depend on a single harvest, this additional income can help reduce the financial risks of adopting new farming methods.
The bigger transformation, however, happens beneath the surface.
Practices such as reduced tillage, biochar application, agroforestry, and enhanced rock weathering gradually improve the soil’s health. As organic carbon builds up, the soil retains more moisture, supports greater microbial activity, and becomes more fertile.
Over time, healthier soil can reduce dependence on chemical fertilisers and improve crop productivity, making farms more resilient to changing weather conditions.
In other words, farmers are not only earning money for contributing to climate action—they are also investing in the long-term health and productivity of their land.
If the model could benefit both farmers and the environment, the next question was whether it could work at scale.
Could it succeed across hundreds of thousands of farmers, spread across different regions, crops, and farming systems?
From a pilot project to a global climate platform
When Varaha was incorporated in 2022, the founders were testing a simple idea: could smallholder farmers improve their soil, reduce emissions, and earn an additional source of income at the same time?
The early projects focused on answering that question.
The team needed to know whether farmers would be willing to adopt new practices, whether the science would stand up to rigorous verification, and whether the carbon credits generated could meet international standards.
As the first projects delivered results, Varaha began to expand.
What started with regenerative agriculture soon grew to include agroforestry, biochar, and enhanced rock weathering. Each programme was designed to improve soil health while delivering measurable climate benefits.
The model’s success in India also paved the way for expansion overseas.
Today, Varaha works not only across India but also in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Côte d’Ivoire, partnering with farming communities that face many of the same challenges, including soil degradation, climate uncertainty, and unstable farm incomes.
For Madhur Jain, one of the company’s biggest milestones has been seeing multiple climate solutions move beyond experimentation to commercial scale.
“Today, much of our portfolio is operating at commercial scale. Our afforestation projects across India, Nepal, and Bangladesh are fully deployed, while our enhanced rock weathering programme in Madhya Pradesh is also running at scale. Regenerative agriculture is expanding across the Indo-Gangetic Plains, and biochar has recently reached commercial scale as well. That gives us confidence that these solutions can deliver benefits for both farmers and the climate across very different geographies.”
The company’s growth is reflected in its numbers.
Its flagship regenerative agriculture programme across the Indo-Gangetic Plains has already onboarded more than 10,000 farmers, with a target of reaching over 70,000 farmers across 800,000 hectares.
To support this expansion, the company has raised more than $50 million. It has also secured a $30 million commitment from climate investor Mirova to scale its Kheti regenerative agriculture programme. Photograph: (Varaha.earth)
Its biochar initiatives have also moved beyond the pilot stage, with the first Puro.earth carbon credits issued in late 2024.
Across its 20-plus active projects, Varaha says it has:
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Sequestered more than 2 million tonnes of CO₂-equivalent.
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Brought more than 1.1 million acres under regenerative agriculture, afforestation, biochar, or enhanced rock weathering.
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Generated over 2,600 jobs.
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Conserved more than 2.4 million litres of water through precision sustainable practices.
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Prevented the burning of 5.4 tonnes of agricultural waste.
To support this expansion, the company has raised more than $50 million. It has also secured a $30 million commitment from climate investor Mirova to scale its Kheti regenerative agriculture programme.
The company has also received several national and international recognitions for its work.
Among them are:
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Featured on TIME 100 Climate 2024 list as one of the world’s leading climate businesses
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Listed on Forbes Asia 100 to Watch 2024.
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Ranked #2 in Asia Pacific Most Innovative Companies 2026 by FastCompany
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Winner of the IndiaAI Innovation Challenge (Agriculture category), hosted by India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, for building AI and remote-sensing expertise for agriculture.
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Recognition as one of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal Top 100 Teams for its work on scalable carbon removal solutions.
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Named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer for its climate technology innovations.
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Partnerships and carbon-removal purchase agreements with global companies, including Google and Microsoft.
These recognitions have helped strengthen confidence in the model among investors, partners, and farming communities.
What’s next for Varaha?
Despite reaching more than two lakh farmers across five countries, the founders believe they are only getting started.
“Our ambition is to remove a billion tonnes of carbon by 2030. But for us, that number is really a reflection of something bigger — how many farmers we can support in making their land healthier and more productive,” says Madhur Jain.
The company plans to expand its programmes across more geographies and farming systems while making it easier for smallholder farmers to participate in climate-positive agriculture.
According to Vishal Kuchanur, technology will be central to that effort.
“The challenge is not proving that these practices work. The challenge is scaling them across millions of farms in a way that remains credible, transparent, and affordable. That’s where technology becomes essential.”
For Varaha, the goal extends beyond carbon markets.
At its heart, the model is about helping farmers restore the health of their soil while creating a more resilient source of income. If that can be achieved at scale, the benefits could reach far beyond individual farms—strengthening rural livelihoods while contributing to the fight against climate change.
