Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare and Tribal Affairs, Shri Arjun Munda launched the Framework for ‘Voluntary Carbon Market in Agriculture Sector and Accreditation Protocol of Agroforestry Nurseries’ on January 29, 2024, in New Delhi. Shri Manoj Ahuja, Secretary of Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Dr Himanshu Pathak, Director General of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and senior officials of Central and State Ministries and other organisations related to agriculture were present at the occasion, and many stakeholders also joined the programme virtually.
Shubhashis Dey, Director, Climate Policy & Climate Finance, and Kartikey Sharma, Programme Manager, Climate Finance, Shakti, were part of the launch event to drive the initiative aimed at fostering the adoption of Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) practices within the agricultural sector.
In his address, Shri Munda said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare prepared a framework to promote Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) in the agricultural sector of the country to encourage small and medium farmers to avail benefits of carbon credit. Introducing farmers to the carbon market will benefit them and accelerate the adoption of environment-friendly agricultural practices. This is the first step in which we want to ensure everyone’s participation. Global challenges like global warming are in front of all of us; hence we must move ahead with caution. He asked ICAR to play an active role in this direction and do good work in the right manner.