Powered by CleanRise tech developed by StringBio, Grow Indigo’s leadership in sustainable farming solutions is further strengthened by addressing both conventional flooded and direct seeded rice.

By BL Bengaluru Bureau.

Agri start-ups Grow Indigo and String Bio have joined hands to help rice farmers cut down on methane emissions through the use of a breakthrough biological solution.

Methane emissions from rice fields (about 160 million hectares globally) has been one of the largest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.

Grow Indigo has built a carbon programme in India by promoting regenerative agricultural practices in rice growing areas and is recognised as a leading innovator in carbon solutions. String Bio is a global leader in developing innovative solutions to address methane emissions from rice fields. By capturing methane to turn it into usable crop nutrition products, String Bio has built solutions to help farmers grow more resilient crops and improve the quality of their produce.

Methane oxidising product

The proprietary technology developed by String Bio, CleanRise, is a methane-oxidising bacteria-based formulation product, that offers a promising solution to significantly reduce methane emissions from rice fields while substantially increasing paddy yields and generating additional income from carbon credits for the farmer, Grow Indigo said in a statement.

Powered by CleanRise, Grow Indigo’s leadership in sustainable farming solutions is further strengthened by addressing both conventional flooded and direct seeded rice in its carbon programmes, while creating substantial impact on farmer livelihood, it said

“The collaboration increases the options available to farmers for improving resilience in rice cultivation and CleanRise is a unique product that we will add to our offering and scale it rapidly to over a million acres,” said Usha Barwale Zehr, Executive Director at Grow Indigo.

“The partnership is a clear example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts – between CleanRise and Grow Indigo’s carbon platform we maximise the benefits to the farmer, the rice value chain and the global climate ecosystem,” said Vinod Kumar, Managing Director at String Bio.

Grow Indigo, an agri-solutions provider for sustainable and regenerative agriculture, is present across 16 States with over 2,000 distribution partners and over 600 feet on ground team offering product from seed treatment to harvest.

String Bio is a biomanufacturing leader delivering next generation ingredients for low-carbon value chains. Through its proprietary String Integrated Methane Platform (SIMP), String Bio transforms greenhouse gases —such as methane — into sustainable solutions, advancing the circular economy in sectors including agriculture, food & beverages, animal nutrition and carbon value chains. Comments

Published Date: April 16, 2025