Spoke with Anirudh Keny (Biz Dev) on Nov 10.
Next steps:
Bootmitra to share whitepaper that details how they are able to remotely measure SOC with a low error rate (<20% and in some cases lower than 5%)
POC: DG to share a list of 30 lat/long and plot area from AP / Telangana and Boomitra will send back estimate for SOC% over past 3 years along with potential payments to farmers from sale of carbon offsets
Boomitra would like to brainstorm how the carbon farming concept can be communicated to farmers
Intro Presentation
Call Notes:
Use multi-spectral remote sensing to generate estimates for SOC at 30cm depth and various other parameters at 10 m resolution.
Where model has been calibrated using ground samples, claim <20% error rate, will share whitepaper that provides further detail. For India, model has been calibrated for punjab, haryana, UP, andhra, telangana
Use of proceeds for a credit sold for $10 (This is their goal at scale, the actual right now may be different)
$5.50 to the farmer
$1.50 to the “behavior change expert” This would be DG. Partner that works with farmers to communicate practices that sequester carbon
$3 to Boomitra who serves as project developer. Boomitra sells the credit, does MRV via their remote sensing capability, lists the credits with a registry, etc.
Standard list of practices that can increase SOC% and thus sequester carbon (see below). Boomitra estimates these can sequester 3 tons per acre per year
incorporate crop residue in the soil, intercropping / planting nitrogen fixing crops, proper irrigation, low/no tillage, organic amendments (manure), optimize nitrogen fertilizer usage
Credits are not yet registered but the plan is to register via Verra VM042. Apparently, the methodology is being revised to allow for a “dynamic performance benchmark” approach which sounds like an RCT; set up a control and treatment group to prove that the treatment group increases SOC. In process of registering projects in Mexico, North and South India
Did not get a great answer on issue of permanence; sounds like Boomitra keeps some buffer pool of credits in reserve and asks farmers to make a pledge to continuing practices for 10 years but once a credit is sold, the risk is on the buyer
On additionality, Boomitra claims they will look back upto 5 years
Boomitra doesn’t need to see any logs to verify what is happening on the ground and how that translates to CO2e reduction; rely entirely on remote sensing. Just need farm boundary to make their assessment
Re: Yara Agoro, Boomitra feels they are targeting the US market (whereas Boomitra is global south) and they don’t have the tech to do MRV at scale (which Boomitra apparently does)
Not getting involved in offtake of physical commodity, just payment for increasing SOC. At $10 per credit, the payment may not be enough to incentivize behavior change but expect prices to rise
Feel that relying on remote sensing is superior to model based approach (eg, RothC)