The livelihood of the world's 150 million rice farmers comes with a cruel paradox. Many are among the poorest in the world, living in regions hardest hit by climate change, yet they depend on a crop which is worsening its effects. Rice, a staple crop feeding 4 billion people daily, contributes to 10 per cent of global human-made methane emissions.
At the world's largest rice research hub in the Philippines, an elite team of rice scientists is on a mission to slash rice's carbon footprint and develop new varieties resilient to climate change. Cutting rice's carbon footprint The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has been home to climate change scientist Ando Radanielson since 2011. She believes the industry's goal of cutting emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 is achievable if farmers adopt climate-smart farming methods.
"It's very hard to engage farmers to be sensitive to climate change, but they'll be very much sensitive to reductions of inputs, reduction of cost of production," Dr Radanielson said. In the trial, emissions are recorded every 30 minutes, according to Ando Radanielson. She is targeting the three most potent greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane.
Her team has found that methane emissions, a by-product of traditional flooded paddy systems, can be cut by 70 per cent by alternating wetting and drying of paddy soils. She's testing if charcoal known as biochar added to soil can capture methane before it's released into the atmosphere, wi.
