Jain Irrigation Signs Agreement with Supercritical for Up to 19,000 Tonnes of Biochar Credits

Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd announced on Wednesday that it has signed an agreement with carbon removal marketplace Supercritical for up to 19,000 tonnes of biochar credits from its operations.

According to the company's regulatory filing, the credits will originate from Jain Irrigation's industrial biochar facility in Jalgaon, Maharashtra, which has been in production since early 2026. The facility converts residues from food processing lines and agricultural crops into biochar through a gasification process, which transforms carbon into a stable form intended to stay locked in soil for centuries.

The company stated that all outputs from the process are utilized within its own operations. Syngas is used to replace fossil fuels at its industrial facilities, while the resulting biochar is supplied to its downstream agriculture businesses and distributed to farmers as a soil amendment.

The project is currently undergoing verification through Puro.earth, alongside an independent BeZero Carbon rating that is underway, the company noted.

Steve Morrin, senior supply manager at Supercritical, noted that while most evaluated biochar projects build supply chains from scratch, Jain Irrigation has an established supply chain developed over decades. Morrin stated that this established delivery profile aligns with what buyers look for in a market where a significant portion of high-quality supply is already committed.

Jain Irrigation has a long-standing operational history with farmers dating back to 1963, having served over 10 million of them. The enterprise operates large-scale mango-processing facilities and tissue-culture nurseries that produce 150 million plants annually. Over the past three decades, the company has commercialized various agricultural technologies, ranging from micro-irrigation to banana tissue culture, and intends to leverage this research base and farmer network to develop biochar products at a commercial scale.

Ajit Jain, joint managing director of Jain Irrigation, stated that the partnership with Supercritical will support the company in scaling its biochar deployment.

The agreement adds volume to an increasingly tight market. According to London-based Supercritical's H2 2026 biochar market report, 81 per cent of high-quality 2026 biochar supply was already committed by July, occurring three months earlier than the same period in 2025 as corporate buyers transition from spot purchases to multi-year contracts.

"This agreement demonstrates how established agricultural enterprises can leverage their existing supply chains and infrastructure to tap into the growing carbon credit market. By converting agricultural residues into biochar and utilizing the resulting syngas internally, Jain Irrigation is creating practical circular economy models at an industrial scale. For businesses operating in the sustainability and agriculture sectors, integrating climate-focused initiatives directly into core operational processes offers a viable pathway to meet rising corporate demand for certified carbon removal credits." — Dr. Shishir Gupta, Founder & CEO, StartupLanes