Inaugural Stakeholder Consultation on Haryana Agroforestry Carbon Finance Project Held in Rohtak

TERI, in partnership with the Kisan Chamber of Commerce (KCC) and Value Network Ventures (VNV), organised the Inaugural Stakeholder Consultation for the Haryana Agroforestry Carbon Finance Project on 14 September 2026 at the KCC Office, Agro Mall, Rohtak, Haryana. The consultation was organised around the theme “From Agroforestry to Carbon Finance: Building a Farmer-Centric Carbon Project in Haryana.”

The programme brought together representatives of KCC, TERI, VNV, farmers and other stakeholders to discuss the development of a credible and scalable agroforestry carbon-finance programme in Haryana. Mr Suresh Deswal, General Secretary, KCC, welcomed the participants, followed by opening remarks from Mr SS Sandhu, Vice President, KCC.

Dr JV Sharma, Senior Director, TERI, presented the background, context and vision of the Haryana Agroforestry Carbon Finance Project. Mr Mradul Choubey, Senior Manager, Program, VNV, outlined the roles of the three partner organisations and the investor perspective.

The technical session covered the full carbon-project development pathway. Mr Anirban Ganguly, Senior Fellow, TERI, discussed the fundamentals of carbon finance, carbon markets and their role in climate-change mitigation. Mr. Rachit Kumar, Senior Associate Fellow, TERI, presented the process of designing a carbon-finance project from concept through registration, monitoring and credit issuance. Mr Sayanta Ghosh, Senior Associate Fellow, TERI, discussed eligibility, project activities, feasibility considerations and carbon-finance pathways for Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation (ARR) and Sustainable Agricultural Land Management (SALM). Ms Madhuparna Majumder, Research Associate, TERI, presented the field-level data requirements and project-development pathway for the Haryana project.

The presentations were followed by an interactive discussion with farmers and KCC representatives on land and plantation information, farmer participation, field verification, monitoring requirements and the next steps for feasibility assessment and project development.

The consultation was chaired by Col M S Dahiya, Executive Member, KCC, who also delivered the closing remarks. The programme marked an important step towards developing a farmer-centric, technically robust and evidence-based agroforestry carbon-finance project in Haryana, with TERI, KCC and VNV working together on the next stage of feasibility assessment, farmer-level data collection and field verification.