Projects/Nature Based Solutions/AFOLU/SALM/Uttar Pradesh's Integrated Climate Smart Agriculture and Agroforestry Project
Driving sustainable agriculture through improved land management, enhancing climate resilience, and promoting efficient water use and agroforestry practices.
The ProClime Kisan Bhoomi Samvardhan Sustainable Agriculture & Land Management (SALM) and Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) Project in Uttar Pradesh is a large-scale AFOLU initiative designed to advance sustainable farming practices, optimize water use, and strengthen long-term climate resilience. Spanning 300,000 hectares, the project focuses on improving soil health, enhancing agricultural productivity, and promoting climate-resilient farming systems while generating measurable carbon benefits.
Scale and Climate Impact
Covering 300,000 hectares across the Shamli and Saharanpur districts in Western Uttar Pradesh, the project is positioned to deliver significant emission management potential alongside improvements in soil health, water efficiency, and overall farm productivity.
Long-Term Sustainability Commitment
A 40-year permanence period ensures that the environmental, agricultural, and carbon benefits generated by the project are sustained over decades, reinforcing long-term resilience and impact.
Credible and Standardised Framework
The project is implemented under the VM0042 methodology, providing a structured and globally recognised framework for monitoring, reporting, and verification of emission reductions and sustainable land management outcomes.
Strategic Regional Implementation
Located in the Shamli and Saharanpur districts of Western Uttar Pradesh, with a tentative start date of 1 October 2026, the project is tailored to regional agricultural conditions. By integrating SALM and AWD practices, it establishes a scalable and replicable model for sustainable land and water management in intensive agricultural landscapes.
The ProClime Kisan Bhoomi Samvardhan Sustainable Agriculture & Land Management (SALM) and Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) Project in Uttar Pradesh is an AFOLU initiative focused on improving land use practices and agricultural systems across the Shamli and Saharanpur districts in Western Uttar Pradesh. Spanning a total area of 300,000 hectares, the project is designed to support the adoption of sustainable farming methods that enhance soil health, optimize water usage, and strengthen climate-resilient agricultural practices while contributing to measurable climate benefits.
With a tentative project start date of 1 October 2026 , the initiative is structured for long-term impact, with a permanence period of 40 years. This extended timeframe reflects a commitment to maintaining consistent land management and water-efficient practices, ensuring that environmental and agricultural outcomes are sustained over decades. The project applies the VM0042, v2.2 methodology, providing a defined framework for monitoring, reporting, and verification of outcomes related to land use emissions, and sustainable agricultural interventions.
As a large-scale AFOLU project, it is expected to deliver significant emission management potential over its lifetime, demonstrating its capacity to contribute meaningfully to climate mitigation efforts. By integrating SALM and AWD practices, the initiative supports improved soil health, efficient irrigation, and enhanced farm productivity, while enabling farmers to transition towards more sustainable and climate-resilient agricultural systems.
The ProClime Kisan Bhoomi Samvardhan Sustainable Agriculture & Land Management (SALM) and Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) Project is grounded in the science of biogeochemical carbon cycling, where atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) is captured through photosynthesis and transferred into plant biomass and soils. Within Agricultural, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) systems, soil organic carbon (SOC) represents one of the most significant terrestrial carbon reservoirs, formed through the accumulation of crop residues, root biomass, and microbial transformation of organic matter.
Enhancing SOC improves soil structure, water-holding capacity, nutrient availability, and resilience to climate variability while functioning as a long-term carbon sink. In parallel, Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) practices in paddy cultivation regulate irrigation by introducing periodic drying phases, thereby reducing anaerobic conditions that generate methane emissions. Together, improved soil and water management practices support climate mitigation, enhance farm productivity, and improve the long-term sustainability of agricultural landscapes.
The ProClime Kisan Bhoomi Samvardhan Project follows Verra's VM0042: Improved Agricultural Land Management (IALM), Version 2.2 methodology. The methodology quantifies both greenhouse gas emission reductions and soil organic carbon removals resulting from the adoption of improved agricultural land management practices. Eligible interventions include improved nutrient management, optimized irrigation practices, biomass residue management, conservation tillage, crop rotation, cover cropping, improved harvesting practices, and sustainable grazing and land management interventions.
Under VM0042 v2.2, project outcomes are determined through scientifically robust and conservative quantification approaches. Soil organic carbon changes are measured using validated measurement techniques and statistically robust sampling methodologies. The methodology also requires the establishment of baseline conditions representing continuation of pre-project practices, enabling the demonstration of additionality and ensuring that emission reductions and carbon removals are incremental and attributable to project interventions.
The methodology incorporates periodic monitoring, uncertainty assessments, conservative emission factor selection, and procedures to account for potential leakage and reversals. These requirements ensure that climate benefits are measurable, transparent, and independently verifiable.
The project delivers climate benefits through multiple interconnected pathways:
The integration of SALM and AWD practices enables simultaneous delivery of carbon removals, greenhouse gas emission reductions, and sustainable agricultural outcomes, generating both climate and livelihood co-benefits.
VM0042 v2.2 is one of the world's leading methodologies for Improved Agricultural Land Management projects under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program. The methodology has been approved under the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) Core Carbon Principles (CCP) framework, subject to applicable project-level requirements and verification procedures.
By combining direct measurement of soil organic carbon, scientifically validated quantification methodologies, periodic monitoring, and independent verification, VM0042 provides a globally recognised framework for generating credible, measurable, and verifiable climate outcomes from sustainable agriculture and land management interventions.
The ProClime Kisan Bhoomi Samvardhan SALM and AWD Project is designed not only to enhance agricultural productivity and farmer resilience but also to generate scientifically robust and internationally credible climate benefits through improved agricultural land management practices.
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