Responsible practices in rice cultivation critical to reducing greenhouse gas emissions: Report

Bengaluru-based biotech company String Bio has published a white paper which calls for urgent scaling up of sustainable approaches in rice cultivation.

Rice is a staple dish in most South Indian homes. But what a large section of people are unaware of is that the cultivation of the carbohydrate-rich grain is a major contributor to the emission of two greenhouse gases (GHG) - methane and nitrous oxide. 

Bengaluru-based biotech company String Bio has published a white paper calling for sustainable practices in rice cultivation. 

“It presents a very interesting duality. We can’t do without rice. At the same time sustainability is an attribute that we need to start thinking about when we talk about rice cultivation,” said Dr. Ezhil Subbian, CEO of String Bio, while launching the report. 

Rice cultivation practices across the globe follow flooding of the rice field to improve the growth of the crop and produce higher yields. But this cuts off the oxygen transfer from atmosphere to soil. As a result, the organic matter in the soil undergoes anaerobic fermentation which results in emission of methane. 

Rice cultivation today accounts for nearly 10% of global methane emissions. At the same time, it has also been a victim of climate change.  

According to the report titled ‘Responsible Rice: Call for Action’, recent trends in rice cultivation indicate a stagnation in crop yields and the rise in temperatures may lead to a 5-10% decrease in crop yields for every degree Celsius increase.

In the future, this could pose a major challenge to sustained production of rice, a cereal grain consumed by around 50% of the global population and critical for food security, underlining the importance of sustainable practices in rice cultivation.