Index >> Soil, Nature Medium For Plant Growth >> Methane Emissions from Lowland Rice Cultivation

Recent studies however point out that India rice soils emit around 4 to 6 Tg methane per year, the upland rice cultivation registering lower values than lowland rice cultivation. Other estimates put the values around 20-150 Tg per year. It appears that the variability may be due to varietal differences of rice planted and to different agronomic practices followed besides the factor contributed by erratic rainfall.

One of the mitigation options found out by experiments is to grow rice cultivars that emit low levels of CH₄. A single midseason drainage may reduce seasonal methane emission rates by about 50 per cent but this practice may generate nitrous oxide, another green house gas.