During the summer, I had the chance to work with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) offices in Los Banos, Philippines, on genetically breeding rice varieties with low CH4 and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. The goal was to contribute in reducing the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) released into the atmosphere.
Background
Rice production is a major source of GHG emissions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that rice production is responsible for about 55% of the total GHG emissions from agricultural soils (Nicholaisen et al., 2021). Because rising temperatures are expected to cause rice fields to emit more GHGs in the future, drastic changes are required to grow rice in a way that minimises environmental damage while improving food security. It is important to breed rice varieties with high yields and low GHG emissions if we want to make more food and have less of an effect on the climate.
Figure 1: Low Carbon Rice in Latin America. (Photo credit: CCAFS Research on Low Emission Development)
Methodology
The study used a randomised complete block design (RCB) experiment, a manual closed chamber approach and gas chromatography for CH4 and N2O gas sample analysis.
Figure 2: Collection of greenhouse gas fluxes, by using a Manually Operated Closed Chamber. (Photo credit: Prachin Buri Rice Research Center)
Through my research, I learned about advanced methods used in plant breeding for managing and analysing plants. It also helped me get in touch with world-famous research institution and scientists who study the genetics of rice.
The United Nations (2019) says that the number of people on earth will reach 9.4 billion by 2050 and an additional 2.7 billion by 2100. So, it is clear that global food production must rise to meet the needs of a growing population, but the question is by how much? Where will it be made in the world? The problem could be solved by breeding plants to make F1 hybrids, which are good for the environment, the economy, and society. But what do these advantages look like? How important are they to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?
What are hybrid varieties?
Genetics and selective breeding use the term “hybrid” (Khan, 2017). A hybrid plant is the offspring of two parent plants that work well together. Then, the hybrid has the best parts of both parents. But to make good parents, you have to make sure their genes are as similar as possible (homozygous). You can do this by crossing the parents with themselves, which is called selfing or inbreeding.
Social, economic and environmental benefits of hybrid varieties
Breeding hybrid varieties of plants can give them good plant health and high yields, which may help farmers deal with the low grain prices right now. When growing conditions are right, hybrid varieties can help farms make more money because the gains from more crops or lower costs for other inputs can cover the cost of the seed. Breeding for hybrid varieties can also have a big effect on how much farmers get paid. If new varieties can grow crops that meet certain quality standards (such as size and taste), they can give farmers access to new markets.
New plant breeding techniques which emerged as an innovative solution: Image credit Shutterstock
The great thing about hybrid varieties is that they have a positive impact on yield. The way families eat can also be affected by how much their crops produce. Hybrid varieties lead to higher yields, especially when the crop is stressed by the environment, like when there is a drought or temperature shock early in the season or when there is heat and drought during grain fill later in the season (Lu et al., 2020). Also, the roots of hybrid varieties are deeper and stronger, which helps them get water and nutrients very quickly. In this way, they make it easier to use less water and nutrients.
Plant breeding of hybrid varieties may help reduce the expansion of agricultural land by helping farmers get higher yields. This could reduce land use change (LUC) and the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that come with it, as well as help keep natural biodiversity. This is especially important in places where converting carbon-rich and biologically diverse landscapes to farmland is part of the process of making more land for farming.
Performance of hybrid rice F1 plant population at milling stage. Image credit: Delin Hong.
Lastly, the COVID-19 pandemic showed how fragile the world’s food system is and how important it is to change it to make it more environmentally and economically resilient. Cereal crops like rice, wheat, and maize can help a lot if they are better bred. Also, any food security plan that wants to attain Sustainable Development Goal 2 (zero hunger) must include larger system-wide changes, like zero-emissions agriculture.
Sources
Khan, N. U. (2017). F1 hybrid. Reference Module in Life Sciences. doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-809633-8.06413-x
Lu, J., Wang, D., Liu, K. et al. (2020). Inbred varieties outperformed hybrid rice varieties under dense planting with reducing nitrogen. Sci Rep10, 8769. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65574-0
United Nations (2019). World population prospects: The 2019 revision. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, United Nations. Online Edition. Rev. 1. Available from https://population.un.org/wpp/Download/Standard/Population/.
Greenhouse Gas (GHGs) emissions have been going up around the world, even though there have been a lot of multilateral institutions and national policies aimed at reducing them. The World Resources Institute (WRI) says that emissions reached almost 50 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalents per year (GtCO2eq/yr) on a global scale (WRI 2021). Eighteen percent of these GHG emissions are caused by agriculture. At the United Nations Climate Summit, people talked about estimates that put this number closer to 50%.
The status of meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change
The world is a long way from meeting the GHG emissions goal set in the 2016 Paris Agreement on Climate Change. This goal is to keep the global temperature rise between 1.5 and 2ºC. For this to happen, efforts to cut emissions would have to be much bigger. By 2030, emissions would have to be anywhere from 25% to 50% lower than what is promised in the current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Agriculture Emissions
Most of the time, GHGs emissions from farming are different from other industries. Most of them come from the production of nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4). Both of these GHGs are made by biological processes (Molla 2014). Nitrous oxide comes from manure, and methane comes from ruminant livestock, mostly cattle, and sheep. Even though the use of energy in agriculture is important, it only accounts for less than 1.5% of all GHGs emissions.
The main on-farm agricultural greenhouse gas emission sources, removals, and processes in managed ecosystems (Source: IPCC 2006).
The way to cut down on emissions from agriculture
Meeting a goal for lowering CH4 emissions is, only a small part of what needs to be done to lower overall emissions and slow down global warming (UNEP 2021). Especially for agriculture, we need to cut back on N2O, which is an even stronger GHG. When choosing between the possible ways to cut down on CH4, it would be smart to also think about how they would affect other GHGs emissions and environmental issues. For instant, if the number of livestock was cut, there would be less animal manure, which could lead to a rise in the use of artificial fertilisers, which emit other GHGs.
An integrated cropping-livestock system for emission reduction (Infographic: R. Kenn/IAEA)
Also, small-scale farming and decentralised food systems are a way to cut down on emissions from agriculture. Small farmers’ emissions are more localised, so they don’t add much to the overall emissions from agriculture. This is because they use less chemical fertiliser, which is a major source of emissions, and sell more of their crops locally. Cover crops, low tillage, and organic fertiliser are all ways to cut down on carbon in the air without adding a lot more.
Conclusion
As COP26 agreed, cutting down on CH4 would help in the short term. Even if CH4 is cut in other areas, the policies and practises of agriculture need to change quickly and in a big way for the overall reduction to be around 25%.
In April 2022 I began my research project for my CCAFS course and my topic focuses on greenhouse emissions and the carbon footprint of inbred and hybrid rice. The project is in conjunction with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). As I began several tasks in April, I obtained knowledge on a variety of issues (in terms of GHGs emissions from rice fields), which l am going to share with you.
Rice, one of the most abundant commodities farmed and consumed globally. Over half of the global population relies on rice as their daily staple diet; over a fifth depends on rice farming for their livelihood, according to the International Rice Research Institute. This could explain why rice contributes about 12 percent of world methane emissions and an astounding 1.5 percent of overall greenhouse gas emissions. In Southeast Asia, one the world’s major rice bowls, rice production accounts for as much as 33 percent of the region’s methane emissions (Umali-Deininger 2022).
Prolonged submersion in rice fields means such field emit lots of methane. Photo: Saravut Vanset
How does the production of rice explain such a high amount of emissions?
For every tonne of rice that is harvested, a tonne of straw and stubble are left behind. Farmers either burn rice straw to prepare fields for subsequent crops, which produces significant carbon dioxide emissions as well as methane, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, and particulates, or they flood the field to promote quick decay, which also produces significant methane emissions.
GHG emissions are increased by food waste and loss along the value chain. Food loss and waste are made worse in many countries by traditional drying techniques (particularly those used on rural roads) and low rice milling efficiency (the ratio of milled rice output to paddy input).
Rice straw burning in an open field. Photo: Rice Knowledge Bank.
Solutions applicable to reduce GHG emissions?
Changing rice production practices: Using excellent agricultural practises and climate change adaptation (CSA) strategies like alternate wetting and drying water management has the potential to considerably reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions. These strategies comprise a combination of bettering irrigation water delivery, levelling the soil, and using superior seeds (e.g. drought-, pest-, and flood-resistant high yielding varieties). Compared to continuous flooding, studies from Uruguay and Colombia reveal that alternate wetting reduces emissions by 55–65 percent (Rodriguez 2016).
Improved management of rice residues: Straw and rice husks can be used as animal feed, growing beds for other crops like mushrooms, inputs for the manufacture of bio-energy, and as organic fertiliser from the by-products.
Breeding of varieties that emit less methane: Breeding rice varieties that emit less methane, is one of the most effective methods for reducing methane emissions.
If you are interested in learning more about how GHG emissions from rice fields and how they can be reduced, I have provided links to a few papers and articles below.
Bhattacharyya, P. and Barman, D. (2018) ‘Crop residue management and greenhouse gases emissions in tropical rice lands’, Soil management and climate change: Elsevier, pp. 323-335.
Wang, C., Lai, D. Y., Sardans, J., Wang, W., Zeng, C. and Peñuelas, J. (2017) ‘Factors related with CH4 and N2O emissions from a paddy field: clues for management implications’, PloS one, 12(1), pp. e0169254.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) most recent report offers a bleak picture that Climate change is already having a profound effect on every corner of the globe, and even more, severe consequences are on the way if we do not halve greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions this decade and swiftly ramp up adaptation.
Working Group II’s contribution to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, which was released on February 28, 2022, drew on 34,000 studies and featured 270 authors from 67 countries. It is one of the most extensive assessments of climate change’s growing effects and future concerns, particularly for resource-poor countries and vulnerable groups. Additionally, the IPCC’s 2022 report analyses the most effective and practical climate adaptation strategies, as well as which groups of people and ecosystems are most susceptible.
The five key takeaways from the report include the following:
1. The consequences of climate change are already more broad and severe than anticipated.
Climate change is already creating severe disruption in every corner of the planet, with only 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming. Droughts, high heat, and record floods already jeopardise millions of people’s food security and lives. Since 2008, each year, terrible floods and storms have displaced more than 20 million people. Crop productivity growth in Africa has slowed by a third since 1961 as a result of climate change.
Today, half of the world’s population experiences water insecurity. In many regions, wildfires are scorching wider areas than ever before, causing irrevocable changes to the terrain (IPCC 2022). Furthermore, rising temperatures aid the spread of vector-borne diseases, including West Nile virus, as well as water-borne diseases like cholera. Climate change is also wreaking havoc on individual species and entire ecosystems. Due to global warming, animals such as the golden toad and Bramble Cays Melomys (a tiny mouse) have become extinct. Other animals, such as the flying fox, seabirds, and corals, are dying in droves, while thousands of others have relocated to higher latitudes and elevations.
2. Risks will increase rapidly as temperatures rise, frequently resulting in permanent effects of climate change.
According to the report, each tenth of a degree of further heat exacerbates hazards to human species and ecosystems. Even limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), the Paris Climate Agreement’s worldwide aim, is not safe for everyone. For example, with just 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming, many glaciers will either vanish entirely or lose the majority of their mass; an additional 350 million people will confront water scarcity by 2030. In the same way, if global warming goes above 1.5 degrees Celsius, climate change will have much worse and often irreversible effects.
Risks from rising temperature. Image: IPCC
According to the IPCC, these risks will compound as numerous hazards occur concurrently and in the same places. For instance, in tropical climates, the combined impacts of heat and drought can result in abrupt and large reductions in agricultural productivity. Simultaneously, when heat-related mortality increases and labour productivity declines, people will be unable to work harder to compensate for drought-related losses (Collins 2022).
3. Climate change is mostly caused by what people do.
When the IPCC published its most recent climate update, a link between human activity and climate change was established. This time, the group concluded with “high confidence” that people are mostly responsible for issues such as more extreme heat waves, melting glaciers, and warming oceans. According to studies, occurrences such as the 2020 Siberian heat wave and the 2016 Asian heat wave would not have occurred if humans had not consumed so much fossil fuel (Collins 2022). Indeed, the IPCC’s 2022 report states unequivocally: “Human influence has unambiguously warmed the atmosphere, oceans, and land.” That should serve as a sufficient warning to all of us to make the necessary changes in our lives and begin recycling and considering green energy sources to power our homes, such as solar or wind energy.
A resident watches a wildfire on Eviaisland, Greece, as the region endures its worst heatwave in decades, which experts have linked to the climate crisis. Photo: AngelosTzortzinis
4. Adaptation efforts are widespread, but they must be accelerated.
While the report articulated the grave concerns posed by climate change, it also emphasized adaptations that have been made or can be implemented to help limit the rate of global warming. Climate change is gaining global attention, and these responses have not gone overlooked. According to the report, at least 170 countries and numerous cities have incorporated adaptation into their climate policies and planning procedures. Adaptation has the potential to boost agricultural productivity, innovation, health, food security, livelihoods, and biodiversity conservation, among other benefits. While greater awareness has prompted numerous governments and countries to act, adaptation globally remains unequal and modest in scale, sector-specific, or centered on planning rather than implementation (Whittington 2022). These activities must be scaled up to reach the global, widespread impact.
5. “Maladaptation” can exacerbate existing problems.
The IPCC provides evidence that adaptation activities can exacerbate existing socioeconomic disparities and result in negative effects, a phenomenon dubbed “maladaptation.” One example would be when a sea wall is constructed to defend a settlement from sea-level rise but instead stops rainwater from draining, creating a new hazard of floods. Regrettably, there is abundant evidence of maladaptation, which disproportionately affects marginalised and vulnerable groups what evidence? (Schipper et al 2022).
Additionally, the IPCC made a special effort to include philosophers, anthropologists, and other authors from a variety of fields that may not be considered typical areas of climate change research in this current edition. This necessitated a greater reliance on qualitative social sciences and a more nuanced examination of issues such as vulnerability and climate justice.
Sources
Collins P. (2020). IPCC climate report 2022 summary: The key findings
The COVID-19 pandemic’s disruptive force creates room for examining how we address environmental concerns, as well as a limited legislative window to direct economic development toward climate-neutral aims. COVID-19 disaster has shown that a more robust society and economy are required. The economic recovery from COVID-19, which will necessitate unprecedented levels of investment, might be a once in a lifetime chance for significant and dramatic transformation toward a more sustainable society, as well as a vehicle for accelerating the transition to climate neutrality. To help with this transition, the European Commission launched a “Green Deal,” an opportunity that includes an ambitious package of investments in green technologies and long-term solutions that can position Europe as a global leader in combating climate change. The Green Deal aspires to create a “modern, resource-efficient, and competitive economy in 2050 with no net greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions and economic growth divorced from resource use” (Ellen MacCarthur, 2021). In this blog, l will highlight how the Green Deal could be seized as an opportunity to revive the transport sector which made losses due to lock downs and help Europe rebound from the COVID-19 crisis. Reviving the transport sector could help turning green difficulties into opportunities for innovation.
Parked up plane at Dublin Airport at the height of COVID-19 restrictions in 2020. Photo: Alan Beston
What the “Green Deal” entails
The invention is a step towards a more equitable and sustainable transition to a carbon neutral Europe. There are eight thematic areas that correspond to the European Green Deal’s primary work. The request for proposals under this opportunity covers prospects for international cooperation in addressing the needs for less developed countries, notably in Africa, in light of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It has far-reaching effects beyond environmental control, as it is also concerned with social justice and public health. The “Green Deal” highlights the importance of rethinking policies for clean energy supply across the economy, industry, production consumption, large-scale infrastructure, transportation, food and agriculture, construction, taxation and social benefits.
The Green Deal. Image: European Union
Why is the Green Deal seen as an opportunity to “Building back greener?”
The health and economic consequences of COVID-19 in the European Union (EU) are asymmetrical across countries and economic sectors. With a strong sense of solidarity across the continent, the risk is being addressed and the threat of extremism is being reduced. Through the Green Deal, countries that are more severely impacted are offered common ground and assistance. Solidarity may be strengthened by other European member states and Europe’s institutions. Unavoidably, special attention will be paid to sectors such as transport, which bear the brunt of the economic consequences of lockdown. Other economic sectors that are likely to require substantial financial assistance and benefit directly from the revival of transport sector include tourism and aviation. The agreement strengthens recovery programs by providing a “use it or lose it” opportunity for the economy to transition to a low-carbon, more inclusive growth path.
Financial support under the “Green Deal” option might be increased to compensate for losses in transportation company turnover during the lockdown periods, as well as to allow the continuation of a number of electrical recharge infrastructure projects. Investment support and financing instruments that provide grants, loans and guarantee mechanisms could help to speed up the deployment of low carbon mobility in the long run, especially for capital intensive projects like electric vehicle charging infrastructure and green hydrogen refuelling stations. Investments in green hydrogen fuel cell systems and storage tanks as well as the necessary distribution infrastructure to transport hydrogen is expected to be around € 40 billion by 2030 (Larkin 2020). This could put a premium on emerging technologies that haven’t yet reached commercial maturity, as well as the commercialization of innovative systems and technologies.
The European Green Deal (EGD) has been mentioned several times as a viable framework for a COVID-19 green revival. In essence, the EGD is a new EU growth strategy aimed at transitioning the EU from a high-carbon to a low-carbon economy, with economic growth decoupled from the use of natural resources. It proposes a number of initiatives to achieve this goal, with the primary goal of the EU being the world’s first net carbon neutral bloc by 2050 (O’Sullivan 2020). Aspects of COVID-19’s green recovery long-term business industry experts concerned with a green recovery from COVID-19 have emphasized the importance of government assistance for transport industry. This chance could unlock positive environmental value and help to achieve carbon neutrality.
