[ThanksLetter] Cambodia Results Prove It: Less Water, More Rice, Lower Emissions

Greetings from Thanks Carbon!
Welcome to the March edition of ThanksLetter. Following our successful Vietnam project announcement in February, we're thrilled to share more progress from the region - this time from Cambodia, where our pilot project has shown impressive results.
We're also proud to introduce FieldSense, our new AI-powered solution that enhances our ability to monitor and measure agricultural lands. Discover how these developments are advancing our climate-smart agricultural initiatives.

Quick Summary

From October 2024 to February 2025, Thanks Carbon collaborated with the General Directorate of Agriculture (GDA) of MAFF Cambodia and the Royal University of Agriculture (RUA) to implement a pilot project in Battambang Province, Cambodia.

Covering 33 hectares, the pilot delivered multiple advantages, including decreased water consumption and strengthened rice roots that reduced lodging risks. Fewer pest and disease problems were also reported. Most impressively, rice yields increased by 13.9% compared to conventional methods—a significant productivity gain directly benefiting farmers. Simultaneously, the project achieved a notable reduction in methane emissions, demonstrating that environmental benefits and agricultural productivity can be successfully aligned.

Our team spent a week on the ground, meeting directly with farmers and stakeholders to understand AWD implementation's practical challenges and opportunities. We conducted interviews and captured documentary footage to communicate the impact of this project effectively.

These encouraging field results have created momentum for broader implementation. To build on this progress, Thanks Carbon will host a conference in Phnom Penh in mid-March 2025. This event will bring together key stakeholders in Cambodia to discuss the project's outcomes and explore opportunities for agricultural transformation through carbon credit projects.

Prominent experts in carbon financing and sustainable agriculture will participate in panel discussions, including GGGI Country Representative Shomi Kim and representatives from the Ministry of Environment (MoE), Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), and Thanks Carbon.

We're proud to announce the launch of FieldSense_v1 (FSv1), an innovative solution developed by our data team, Team-Magus. This technology addresses a critical challenge we encountered during our Vietnam project in January 2024—the lack of coordinate information for local farmlands.

Since our solutions rely on satellite imagery to analyze fields, having precise coordinates is essential. Gathering this data on the ground for projects covering hundreds of thousands of hectares would be impractical. FSv1 solves this by using deep learning models to automatically estimate coordinates and identify agricultural lands.

FieldSense significantly improves carbon market accuracy and transparency by solving a persistent problem in Nature-based carbon projects: precise area measurement. Traditional mapping methods often inadvertently include non-agricultural areas like roads and field boundaries in their calculations, particularly in countries with limited digital address systems.

By precisely distinguishing cultivated areas from non-agricultural land, and—when combined with our AquaSight technology—verifying AWD implementation, FieldSense ensures more accurate carbon credit calculations. This enhanced precision enables the production of high-quality carbon credits that organizations can confidently purchase, ultimately accelerating our collective progress toward net-zero goals.

The core of FSv1 lies in land-use inference, currently focused on paddy fields but evolving to detect various crops, forests, natural capital, and more. Our plan is to leverage this technology for:

The advancement of this technology brings us closer to our final mission of accurately measuring changes, enabling us to determine which human activities yield positive impacts and which are detrimental—after all, what isn't measured can't be managed. While challenges lie ahead, we are confident that, with our incredible team, we can tackle them through AI. 

Related Resources

That’s all for this month’s edition of ThanksLetter!
We’re excited to share more updates with you in the coming months as we continue to grow and collaborate on climate solutions. In the meantime, feel free to connect with us through our website or social channels. See you in April!

Join us in making a difference

Interested in partnering with Thanks Carbon to drive climate solutions? Reach out to us here → to explore collaboration opportunities.