Shillong: The Meghalaya government has disbursed its first carbon payments to farmers for their contributions to carbon sequestration through the plantation of multi-species tree-based agroforestry in biodiversity hotspots.
In the first round of payments, the sale of each Carbon Removal Unit (CRU) reached EUR 40.
This is the highest per-tonne carbon payment ever made to farmers in India and nearly four to five times the global average.
The MegCare program is officially an acronym for Meghalaya Carbon Agroforestry for Community Resilience and Ecosystems.
It involves a partnership between Iora Ecological Solutions (IORA), Rabobank’s Acorn platform and the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA).
The program enables tree-based farming practices that improve biodiversity, secure spring beds and store carbon in the soil and biomass.
The program was launched in January 2024. It has already expanded to over 22,000 hectares of land and 10,400 farmers across the Khasi-Jaintia and Garo Hills regions.
Iora is now supporting the program’s expansion. It wants to establish 100,000 hectares of new Agroforestry plantations and enhance 50,000 hectares of existing tree-based systems.
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