Akhila Kosaraju

Thank you Michael, appreciate it!

When we stop treating soil like dirt, crops grow stronger, farms survive droughts, and carbon gets locked away for decades.

And that's day 28/31 of Climtober.

CIBO Technologies models soil carbon at the field level, providing region-specific guidance across different climates and crop systems.

Together, these startups are making it possible to transform farmland into a distributed carbon capture network that pays farmers.

Regrow Ag tracks soil carbon over time using satellite data and crop models, ensuring permanence and credit reliability.

4) Making it work across different regions. What stores carbon in Iowa won't necessarily work in India or Kenya.

Indigo Ag connects farmers to carbon markets through its Soil Carbon Program with upfront payments and agronomic support.

3) Proving the carbon stays sequestered. One season of tilling or drought can release decades of stored carbon back into the atmosphere.

Perennial uses digital soil mapping and machine learning to measure soil carbon at scale, making verification affordable.

2) Getting farmers to actually adopt these practices. Most lack the financial cushion or technical support to shift to regenerative methods.

Nature handles the carbon storage. But turning millions of farms into paid carbon sinks requires solving four problems:

1) Measuring soil carbon accurately. Traditional sampling is expensive and soil varies wildly by field, depth, and management history.

In the U.S. alone, croplands could offset 5% of national emissions if these practices went mainstream. The voluntary carbon market is projected to hit $50 billion by 2030.

Farmers get paid to store carbon. Companies get credible offsets. The planet gets CO₂ removed.

And the best part:

→ Microbes and fungi wake back up, locking carbon into soil organic matter

→ Regenerative practices accelerate this: no-till, cover crops, composting

→ Digital tools verify how much carbon is stored

→ Verified gains become carbon credits that pay farmers

No billion-dollar facilities. No experimental technology. No complex systems. No waiting.

Just better farming.

That's soil carbon sequestration.

Here's how it works:

→ Plants pull CO₂ from the air and send it underground through roots

Soils store 3x more carbon than the entire atmosphere. Around 2,500 gigatons globally.

We didn't build this carbon sink. Nature did.

We just destroyed it.

And farmland is still eroding twice as fast as what's sustainable.

But what if we could bring it back to life?

For the last century, industrial agriculture treated soil like dirt.

Plow it. Pump it with chemicals. Extract until it stops producing.

And that approach released gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere.

But here's what most people don't know:

Nature built the world's biggest carbon storage system over millions of years.

But modern farming broke it in less than a century. Here’s how:

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And that's day 27/31 of Climtober - breaking down climate topics daily so you know more than most industry insiders.

Together these startups are making it possible to generate clean energy from thousands of rivers without building a single dam.

So here's my question to you: Can thousands of small hydro projects actually replace the gigawatts that large dams provide, or are we sacrificing scale for sustainability?

4) Regulatory delays kill projects before they start. Even small-scale hydro faces lengthy permitting and environmental clearance.

HYDROGRID provides digital monitoring and automation tools that streamline compliance and optimize output in real-time.

3) Power generation drops during dry seasons. Low-flow rivers can't sustain year-round generation alone.

Turbulent Hydro builds compact vortex turbines that generate power from very low-flow rivers, keeping small hydro operational even during dry seasons.

2) Poorly designed plants disrupt aquatic life and sediment flow. Traditional turbines can harm fish and block natural river processes.

Emrgy Inc. builds turbine arrays that deploy in existing canals and irrigation channels with minimal habitat disruption.

1) Every site needs custom engineering and equipment. Development costs kill projects before they start.

Natel Energy develops modular "Restoration Hydro" systems that are prefabricated and standardized, slashing both cost and installation time.

And the economics work: Communities get reliable baseload power. Rivers stay intact. Energy stays local.

But scaling this to thousands of rivers and canals requires solving four problems:

A single 1 MW plant can power up to 1,000 homes sustainably. Small hydro projects emit less CO₂ than coal and often run for 50+ years, already contributing nearly 7% of global hydropower capacity

→ Mechanical energy converts to electricity instantly

→ Power flows to local grids or microgrids for remote communities

→ Fish-friendly designs and flow management keep ecosystems intact

Just turbines that work with the natural flow of water.

Here's how it works:
→ Diversion structures guide flowing water toward turbines without blocking the river

→ The kinetic energy of moving water spins the turbine connected to a generator

Rivers flow. Canals move water. Streams run constantly.

The energy is already there. We just needed smaller technology.

That's small hydropower. And it changes everything.

No massive dams. No flooded communities. No destroyed ecosystems. No decade-long construction.

For centuries, we built massive dams.

Displaced millions of people. Flooded entire valleys. Destroyed river ecosystems.

All to capture energy from flowing water.

But here's what we missed: you don't need a dam to generate hydropower.

Every country that wanted hydroelectric power paid the same devastating price.

And they all thought it was the only way:

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Together, these companies prove that if you rebuild soil instead of depleting it, agriculture can become real carbon capture infrastructure.

And that's day 26/31 of Climtober. Breaking down climate topics daily so you know more than the gatekeepers keeping you out.

4) Regenerative products rarely get price premiums. Supply chains don't recognize or reward the extra work.

Andes deploys carbon-capturing microorganisms with seeds, generating verified removal credits that can boost farm income by 25%.

3) Measuring soil carbon consistently is expensive. Traditional verification requires manual sampling across every field.

CIBO Technologies uses satellite data and AI to quantify soil health and carbon across thousands of farms, making verification scalable.

2) Knowledge gaps slow adoption. Farmers need region-specific guidance on what actually works for their climate and soil.

Regrow Ag uses remote sensing to track regenerative outcomes in real time, giving farmers data-driven insights specific to their land.