India's Rice
Fields Among the World's Largest Methane Emission Sources
Prelims:
Environment & Ecology, Agriculture
Mains:
GS Paper III- Environment & Ecology,
Agriculture
Current
relevance:
A study published in Nature Food has found that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from
paddy fields have doubled since the 1960s, with India's rice fields,
particularly in eastern India, ranking among the world's major methane emission hotspots.
Highlights:
1.
The study found that greenhouse gas emissions from global paddy fields nearly doubled between 1961–1980 and 2011–2020,
with annual emissions reaching around 1.1
billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (CO₂-e).
2.
The rise
in methane emissions is driven by the depletion
of soil organic carbon, methane
generation under flooded paddy
conditions, continuous irrigation, incorporation of crop residues into the soil, and increased application of nitrogen
fertilizers.
3.
Paddy
fields in eastern India are identified among the global methane hotspots, while
irrigated paddy fields in India emit around 3.9 million tonnes of methane annually.
4.
Emission
Reduction Measures:
i.
Optimised
Irrigation: Adopt
alternate wetting and drying (AWD) to
reduce the duration of continuous flooding in rice fields to lower methane
emissions.
ii.
Improved
Crop Residue Management: Adopt practices such as composting, mulching, biochar production,
or removal of crop residues from flooded rice fields instead of
incorporating them into the soil.
iii.
Promote the balanced and efficient use of nitrogen
fertilizers through practices such as
neem-coated urea, split application of fertilizers, and soil test-based
nutrient management to minimise greenhouse gas emissions.
iv.
Climate-Resilient
Farming:
The
National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) promotes the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), which
involves transplanting young seedlings and avoiding continuous flooding to
reduce methane emissions.
v.
Collectively, these measures can reduce global greenhouse gas emissions
from rice cultivation by around 10%
by the middle of the century, even under a warming climate.
Source: THE HINDU - https://www.pressreader.com/india/the-hindu-international-9bn2/20260726/281968909472157?srsltid=AfmBOopJZF4QgQsQms9VEzzzj2DD5uBKSF2V7WH6vsbIVIQsBw_0vnNJ