Identifying rice management interventions to reduce methane emissions while improving productivity is critical for climate change mitigation, adaptation, and food security. We leverage site-based data to model combined rice yields, methane emissions, and water productivity for 83 sites across the Red River Delta, Vietnam. We test three rice management interventions with our coupled crop-soil model, characterized by Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) and other System of Rice Intensification (SRI) principles. Our simulations are forced with historical as well as future climate conditions, for a high-emission climate scenario centered on 2050.
We evaluate the efficacy of these interventions for combined climate change mitigation and adaptation under historical and future climate change. Two SRI interventions significantly increased yields (one by over 50%) under historical climate conditions while also reducing (or not increasing) methane emissions. These interventions also increase yields under future climate conditions although climate change decreases absolute yields across all management practices. Generally, where yield improved, so did crop water-use efficiency. However, impacts on methane emissions were mixed under future climate conditions. SRI principles combined with high-yielding varieties, implemented for site-specific conditions, can serve climate change adaptation and mitigation goals.
PARIS, FRANCE / ACCESSWIRE / Cornell University and CarbonFarm are announcing the launch of the ClimateRice Initiative. ClimateRice leverages satellite-verified carbon credits to scale the adoption of climate-resilient rice production practices based on the System of Rice (SRI) Intensification, reducing methane emissions by 50%.
This declaration recognized the increasing vulnerability of agriculture and food systems to climate change, highlighting the escalating threat to their resilience. Regrettably, however, this declaration did not directly address the substantial emissions from agriculture, nor the low cost of mitigating thesehttps://www.sri-2030.org/the-alliance. Following the declaration, the Food, Agriculture, and Water Day at COP28 saw further announcements aimed at increasing climate change mitigation and adaptation in agriculture. (See article for list). Other organizations such as the Sustainable Rice Landscapes Initiative (SLRI) and Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) have been working on addressing the environmental impacts of rice production for several years.
During 2023, SRI-2030 launched the Sustainable Rice NDC Alliance to bring together countries with rice-related commitments in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). In fact, more than 30 countries include rice in their NDCs and 13 countries specifically listed SRI methods as a mitigation and/or adaptation option. Encouraging more countries to commit to sustainable rice production in their NDCs would channel resources toward actionable strategies benefiting farmers, consumers, and the environment.
SRI-Rice's insight:
Read more about the NDC Alliance on the SRI-2030 website.
The authors analyze the role of agroecological-based climate-smart rice farming systems with focus on system of rice intensification (SRI) in climate adaptation and mitigation. Modern agriculture contributes significantly to climate change through methane production, with paddy rice production being a major source. However, there is the potential to reduce the negative impact through SRI. At the same time, the SRI intervention can increase yield by encouraging aerobic soil conditions, improving soil health and stimulating root systems. The chapter provides a conceptual framework for optimizing the management of ecosystem goods and services reflected in the biodiversity contained in healthy rice paddy fields.
[Video] The global food system is responsible for between 20-30% of greenhouse gas emissions, most of which are generated at the production stage. Conventional rice production generates emissions equivalent to the entire global aviation industry. So how can we produce rice in a way that uses fewer resources and regenerates nature? A growing number of farmers around the world are changing the way they produce rice, by adopting an agroecological approach called the System of Rice Intensification (SRI).
Rice is the staple crop for over half of the world’s population and provides a livelihood for around one billion people. Traditional rice cultivation is, however, the largest crop contributor to greenhouse gases (GHG), with up to 12% of global methane emissions coming from flooded paddies. Small-holder farmers produce 90% of rice, living on the front-line of the changing climate, trying to secure food and income.
The problem: Rice is key to food security, providing the livelihood and being the staple crop for billions, but rice cultivation is also the second biggest emitter of methane in agriculture.
Why it matters: Food security and climate change mitigation and adaptation are essential to the survival and prosperity of every nation.
The solution: The System of Rice Intensification (SRI): A proven, cost-effective, and scalable approach to rice cultivation that increases yields and returns for farmers while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption.
La Côte d’Ivoire s’engage à réduire ses émissions de gaz à effet de serre de 30,41 % d’ici à 2030, selon son ministre de l’Environnement et du développement durable, Jean-Luc Assi. M. Assi a fait cette déclaration, mercredi à Glasgow (Ecosse), lors d’un panel de haut niveau portant sur la présentation des nouvelles ambitions des pays dans un contexte de révision générale des contributions déterminées au niveau national (CDN)...
...Les commerces, les transports et les industries figurent également sur cette liste de même que la promotion de pratiques agricoles intelligentes face au climat, la mise œuvre à grande échelle du système de riziculture intensif (SRI), la mise en œuvre de décharges modernes et de centres de valorisation et d’enfouissement technique avec récupération de méthane, sont également au nombre des actions prévues par l'Etat ivoirien.
SRI-Rice's insight:
Côte d'Ivoire is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 30.41% by 2030, according to its Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Jean-Luc Assi. ...Commerce, transport and industries are also on this list as well as the promotion of climate-smart agricultural practices, the large-scale implementation of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), the implementation of modern landfills and recovery and technical landfill centers with methane recovery are also among the actions planned by the Ivorian State.
[Updated version of the Project Drawdown website.] Rice is the staple food of 3 billion people, providing one-fifth of calories consumed worldwide. Its cultivation is responsible for at least 10 percent of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and 9 to 19 percent of global methane emissions. The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is a holistic approach to sustainable rice cultivation. By minimizing water use and alternating wet and dry conditions, it minimizes methane production and emissions.
SRI has been adopted largely by smallholder farmers and has much higher yield benefits compared to improved rice production. We calculate that SRI can expand from 6.7 million hectares to 40-52 million hectares by 2050, both sequestering carbon and avoiding methane emissions that together total 2.8-4.3 gigatons of carbon dioxide or its equivalent over thirty years. With increased yields, 333-510 million additional tons of rice could be produced, earning farmers an additional $574-817 billion in profit in the lifetime and lifetime operational savings of $14-21 billion.
...With paddy rice responsible for an estimated 1.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the system of rice intensification has another bonus: a big reduction in the production of methane, a particularly noxious greenhouse gas emitted from flooded rice fields as bacteria builds up in the waterlogged soil.
According to “An Agroecological Strategy for Adapting to Climate Change: The System of Rice Intensification,”a chapter in the recently published book Sustainable Solutions for Food Security, SRI “practices can help mitigate the forces driving climate change by reducing the net emissions of greenhouse gases from paddy fields, thereby lowering the global warming potential of irrigated rice production.”
What’s more, the chapter states, “there is little or sometimes no increase in nitrous oxide emissions when SRI soils are kept in mostly aerobic condition and when little if any inorganic (nitrogen) fertilizer is applied.”
The management methods of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), by creating aerobic soil conditions through shallow and intermittent irrigation or alternate wetting and drying (AWD), bring about mostly aerobic soil conditions that sharply reduce methane emissions. Research has shown that intermittent paddy irrigation by SRI or AWD reduced methane emissions by between 22% and 64%...
The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is among the 100 solutions identified by Project Drawdown, which estimates that SRI could scale to 133 million acres by 2050, with a savings of about 3 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent. At the same time it would be result in the additional production of about 477 million tons of rice, earning farmers an additional $678 billion in profit! While SRI was evaluated based on its contribution to reducing methane and greenhouse gas emissions, the methodology has a positive impact on many of the other solutions identified in Drawdown, such as empowering smallholder women farmers, regenerative agriculture, nutrient management, education of girls, water-saving and composting. So the multiplier effect is dramatic. http://www.drawdown.org/
SRI-Rice's insight:
Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, edited by Paul Hawken, director of Project Drawdown, was published in April. It is the culmination of a multi-year effort of scientists and experts from around the world to identify, research and model the 100 most important solutions to reverse global warming by 2050.
The theme of the first event in the SRI Global Research Webinar series is “Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Mitigation with the System of Rice Intensification (SRI)”
Date: 9.00 – 10.30 AM (UTC-4), August 22, 2024
Speakers:
Chusnul Arif (IPB University, Indonesia) will speak on “Managing Water in SRI Paddy Fields to Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Maintain Yield“
James Dahlgreen (SRI-2030, UK) will speak on “Harnessing the Climate Credentials of SRI Through Top-down Interventions”
By joining the SRI Global Research Network, you can learn about upcoming webinars in this series and access the Network's newsletter and SRI research database. (visit sri-research.org.for details)
The Sustainable Rice NDC Alliance continues to support its core aim of implementing high-yield low-emission rice agriculture by elevating rice-related NDC commitments. SRI-2030, the Alliance secretariat, is now focusing its support on Africa, although it will continue to support all nations pursuing sustainable rice production.
The Alliance continues to work directly with governments to design rice roadmaps with a current focus on West African nations. These are practical implementation plans combining agricultural policies such as National Rice Development Strategies or Climate Smart Agriculture frameworks with climate policy commitments as in countries’ NDCs.
Events: A Focus on Finance meeting was followed by a panel on Food and Agriculture in Dubai in November 2023. Other recent activities include co-hosting a February workshop in Nairobi on African Paddy Rice Greenhouse Gas Mitigation. and an April webinar with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) to examine how the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) can contribute to climate and development objectives of the Bank’s goals.
An article in Agronomy shows that there need not be a trade-off between food security and climate change mitigation. A review of field studies found that SRI is associated with both reduced GHG emissions and higher yield compared with conventional flooded rice farming. The authors found that the mean reduction in emissions per kilogram of rice produced was 48% when SRI is compared with conventional practices. Yield benefits of SRI compounded the already significant reduction in emissions associated with alternate wetting and drying (AWD). The authors recommend that farmers be encouraged to adopt SRI practices given the dual benefits for food security and climate change mitigation. They also cited other benefits of SRI, and call for more research into the potentially even more significant benefits of soil carbon sequestration with SRI. [This article is published in Agronomy's Special Issue on “The System of Rice Intensification (SRI)—Contributions to Agricultural Sustainability”]
... Since the end of 2022 a total of eleven countries have chosen to include the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) as a mitigation or adaptation action in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
SRI is a practical and attractive option for rice producing countries to reduce the GHG emissions associated with rice cultivation and adapt to climate impacts. Rice cultivation is a significant source of methane emissions and is responsible for around 12% of global anthropogenic methane emissions - and around 1.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions. To put this in perspective, this puts rice cultivation not far behind the global aviation industry which accounts for around 2.1% of all anthropogenic GHG emissions. By reducing flooded fields and chemical inputs, SRI can reduce net GHG emissions by 50% or more per kg rice produced and methane emissions by up to 70%. On top of that, SRI improves a farmer’s climate resilience against droughts, storms and extreme weather all while helping to produce more rice from less.
SRI-Rice's insight:
This article appears on the blog of SRI-2030, which has now expanded its social media platforms substantially. Here's a link to all the ways you can access their information: https://linktr.ee/sri_2030. SRI-2030. SRI-2030 is an NGO dedicated to tackling emissions by upscaling SRI to 59M by 2030.
SRI-2030 has a number of educational infographics and brochures on SRI related to GHGs, water use, Conservation Agriculture adaptations, food security, and other topics.
SRI-Rice's insight:
These downloadable items from SRI-2030 provide concise, short introductions to several areas where SRI can have a significant impact on the lives of farmers as well as the planet.
This is an introduction to SRI-2030, an initiative of Homeland Conservation in the UK. The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is a way of growing rice that increases grain yield while reducing inputs and GHG emissions. -->The newly-launched SRI-2030 website is here: https://www.sri-2030.org/
The share of countries that referenced rice cultivation actions in new and updated National Determined Contributions (NDCs) has increased since the previous round of NDCs. Among the top 10 countries with the highest mitigation potential for rice cultivation, 4 countries mentioned rice mitigation actions. Seventeen countries quantified measures for rice cultivation in their new and updated NDCs, for the first time. ... 56% of countries mentioning adaptation actions in rice prioritized water management (10 of 18 countries), 33% mentioned System of Rice Intensification (SRI) (6), and 33% mentioned variety development (6). [An online spreadsheet linked to this article notes how many countries mentioned SRI by name in their NDCs with rice-related adaptation or mitigation (or both) plans (9 of 29 countries): Mitigation that included SRI: Dominican Republic, Senegal, and Mali and Adaptation that included SRI: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Togo]
SRI-Rice's insight:
Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) are at the heart of the Paris Agreement and the achievement of these long-term goals. NDCs embody efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The challenge of green development should encourage nations to make concerted efforts to achieve the goal of restricting GHG emissions to 1.5% above pre-industrial levels set by the Paris Agreement and also achieve SDGs by 2030. For achieving the 1.5% goal, emissions must drop 7.6% per year till 2030. The Paris Agreement aimed at securing commitment by countries to enhance their NDCs by 2020. ...Paddy cultivation contributes about 15-20% of the total anthropogenic methane emissions. Methods like System of Rice Intensification (SRI), drip irrigation, soil amendments, organic matter management, different tillage, rotation, and cultivar selection, can facilitate mitigation of methane emission. Research has shown that SRI reduced methane emissions by 22% to 64%. SRI also facilitates a significant reduction in the cost of production, saving of freshwater and increasing yield and farmers’ income.
...Excessive irrigation is not sustainable in the era of climate change since it depletes the availability of irrigation water. Various modern irrigation methods can reduce the use of irrigation water without jeopardising productivity. The most common methods are covering the soil surface with a thin layer of water (shallow ponding); ponding the soil surface with water on certain days (alternate wetting and drying); rotating from one plot to another (rotating irrigation); and saturating the soil surface without water ponding (saturated irrigation). These techniques can improve land productivity. Saturated irrigation is commonly applied in SRI and has been proven capable of increasing water productivity and decreasing GHG emission
SRI-Rice's insight:
Setiawan, B.I. and E. Yamaji (2019), ‘SuccessfulAdaptation Measures for Inland and Coastal Food Security’, in Anbumozhi, V., M. Breiling, and V. Reddy(eds.), Towards a Resilient ASEAN Volume 1: Disasters, Climate Change, and Food Security: Supporting ASEAN Resilience.Jakarta, Indonesia: Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, pp. 109-136.
Reducing emissions of methane, black carbon, and other short-lived climate pollutants is critical to poverty alleviation and development, and provides fast-action solutions to address climate change. Efforts to alleviate poverty and support social mobility and livelihoods can be bolstered by actions that mitigate climate change. A new Oxfam America research paper, assesses and draws attention to the sustainable development outcomes that can arise from implementing measures that reduce climate pollutants such as methane and black carbon—so-called short-lived climate pollutants (SLCP) or “super pollutants.” Turns out, behind the wonky jargon there is a long list of poverty fighting benefits that can be derived from super pollutant mitigation strategies... ...Adopting rice production practices that use less water, such as the System of Rice Intensification or alternate wetting and drying methods, can enhance resiliency, lower costs, and reduce methane emissions while yielding comparable amounts of grain...
Three aspects of different rice cultivation, carbon footprint, water productivity, and energy efficiency were analysed. GHG emissions from rice cultivation estimated are CH4, N2O and CO2.Three rice cultivation systems SRI (System of Rice Intensification), AWD (Alternate Wetting and Drying) and conventional were selected which differ in agronomic and water management practices. The gas samples were collected using static closed chamber and was analysed using a gas chromatograph equipped with FID. Water irrigated to the field was measured in m3 using a water meter. The estimates of carbon footprint were prepared using the global warming potential of the above GHGs as suggested by IPCC. The results indicate that SRI method of cultivation recorded less carbon footprint of 0.491 kg CO2 eq. /kg of dry matter with higher yield 10.82 t and water 1.69 kg/m3.
SRI-Rice's insight:
R. K. Rajesh Krishnan et al. 2017. Sobering rice production from conventional to climate smart. International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences 6(8): 2804-2813. doi: 10.20546/ijcmas.2017.609.345
New water- and cost-efficient farming techniques will allow Vietnam to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in wet rice production by 15 to 20 percent by 2020, said Mai Van Trinh, Director of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Institute for Agricultural Environment. Trinh was speaking at a recent conference on the first phase of the Project on Reduced CH4 Emissions in Wet Rice Cultivation in Vietnam, jointly held by his institute and the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute in Hanoi .
To achieve the target, the ministry will use the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), a plan in which farmers will increase productivity, quality and economic effectiveness, while reducing pesticides and nitrogenous fertilisers, he said.
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T. Li, S.S. McDermid, R.O. Valdivia, et al. 2024. Climate change mitigation and adaptation for rice-based farming systems in the Red River Delta, Vietnam. CABI Agriculture and Bioscience 5(1): 109. doi:10.1186/s43170-024-00308-0