Estimation of net greenhouse gas emission from a paddy field

I know that irrigation is the biggest contributor in green house gas emission in agriculture. I work in paddy research centre and want to know how to calculate or estimate net green house gas emission from the paddy feild. We mostly grow rice in bunded fields and maintain 5-10 cm of water level in each bund.

I want to know this as we wish to reduce the GHG emmision from the feild by adopting different and better irrigation method over this old flood irrigation system.

Taxonomy

• Basin Irrigation
• Climate Change

11 Answers

1. You can use alternate wet and dry (AWD) to reduce the green house gass emission. Further you can use optimum water and develop irrigation schedule in such way so that optimum or minimum water can be applied. Further you can introduce bund-side tree plantation for to reduce the emmission for irrigation field. Many more local technologies -----------------------------------------------------

2. thank you everyone and water team for the efforts.

3. Urea and pesticides are used in each crop so now this proble persist in every crop of agriculture. We are to be care ful that any prevention or post- treatment should not be costly than the cost of growing crop otherwise no one to adopt.

4. We are going to use closed path GHG analyzers for monitoring the emission for longer duration and going to use Drip irrigation for first study. this study will be carrying out in a small farm so that it should be accurately monitored. Thanks everyone for your inputs

5. Dear Mr. Khan In order to estimate the net GHG from the paddy field you have to continuously monitor the GHG emission in the site location 24*7. This can be done easily by closed path GHG analyzers. You can adopt different irrigation method and can monitor the GHGs from the paddy field. By doing so you can have a clear understanding on the amount of GHGs emitted. But fast, precise and accurate measurement should be done for better understanding Thanks

6. Methane and nitrous oxide emissions from rice paddy fields as affected by nitrogen fertilisers and water management
   
   

   'Methane and nitrous oxide emissions from rice paddy fields as affected by nitrogen fertilisers and water management' read this paper this may help http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1004263405020#page-1

7. The cool farm tool
   
   

   Mr. Khan,

   There is an excellent program developed by the Cool Farm Institute, which will allow you to make the estimation you are looking for.

   Your objective is clear and certainly you will reduce the GHG by improving the irrigation practices. Nevertheless, I strongly suggest you to review your fertilizacion practices as well.

   Best regards.

   Dr. Aidee Orozco

   McCain Foods Limited

    

    

8. You may have already read these papers and reports, if not they would be useful A chinese paper - http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0065277 IPCC publication - http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/gl/guidelin/ch4ref5.pdf http://www.ghgonline.org/methanerice.htm

9. Methane (CH4) gases emissions from rice paddy cause the green house effect which is 11 times greater than carbon dioxide due to anaerobic layer of flooded system. Nitrous oxide is also emitted.The management of methane in Japan is through mid summer drainage, intermittent irrigation, no tillage practices and apply ammonium sulphate. The methodology of measuring methane I do not know but from literature, you can use chamber method or Methane emission model (which involves measuring rice growth, air temperature, soil properties, organic matter etc).

10. Paddy has a good share in agricultural emissions. It will be good to check IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories: Reference Manual for basic methods

11. 1. I would like to know how much is the agro-climatic zone wise consumptive and actual crop water requirement for paddy for any area. 2. Does monsoon arrival date has any role to play in it.