Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd. (JISL) — the world’s largest micro-irrigation systems provider and a global leader in sustainable agriculture — has commissioned a ~20,000 tonne/annum high-tech industrial-scale biochar facility along with its partners in Jalgaon, Maharashtra, advancing climate-smart agriculture, circular manufacturing, and engineered carbon removal at commercial scale. JISL has worked with global experts in the field to design and implement this pioneering project.

With a processing capacity of more than 50 metric tonnes of agricultural and fruit processing residue per day, the Jalgaon plant stands among the world’s largest single-unit biochar reactors, placing India at the forefront of the global biochar and carbon removal movement.

The Jalgaon plant is the first of multiple biochar reactors, with additional units already under development.

What Is Biochar?

Biochar is a stable, carbon-rich material produced through pyrolysis, where agricultural crop residue is heated in a low-oxygen environment. Unlike the unsustainable disposal or open burning of crop residue — which contributes to emissions — converting this residue into biochar stores carbon in a durable form for hundreds of years while simultaneously improving soil health. It is widely regarded as one of the most credible and durable forms of carbon dioxide removal (CDR).

Farm-to-Soil Circular Economy, Climate Impact & Carbon Credits

This project brings to life a powerful farm-to-soil circular economy: crop residues once treated as waste are converted into premium biochar and returned to farmers’ fields to improve soil fertility, enhance water retention, and strengthen climate-ready agriculture. By creating value from agricultural residue, the project opens new income streams for farmers, lowers dependence on synthetic inputs, and advances a regenerative model where productivity, profitability, and sustainability reinforce each other.

Critically, JISL’s existing infrastructure across micro-irrigation, planting material, agri-food processing, and solar systems — and its deep distribution network reaching millions of farmers — creates a ready-built channel to return biochar directly to farms at scale. No other biochar producer in India has this last-mile advantage.

India generates over 500 million tonnes of crop residue annually, much of which is openly burned. The JISL facility transforms this challenge into a multi-layered economic opportunity:

• Improves long-term farm economics and soil productivity
• Creates rural employment across biomass collection, processing, and distribution
• Supports India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC)
• Enables farmers to participate directly in the global carbon economy

The JISL biochar project delivers durable, measurable, and verifiable carbon dioxide removal credits supporting permanent carbon sequestration for hundreds of years, reducing stubble burning, enriching soil carbon, and improving water-use efficiency.

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