Changes in CH4 emission from rice fields from 1960 to 1990s: 1. Impacts of modern rice technology

Four countries (Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Nepal) were taken as an example to assess the impact of changes in rice cultivation on methane emissions from rice fields since the 1960s. The change of rice area by type of culture from 1960–1990s is estimated, and its relative contribution to national harvested rice area is calculated and multiplied with an emission factor, to derive the relative methane emission per unit rice land. Relative methane emission per ha rice land has increased since 1960 for all four countries, largely due to an increase in irrigated rice area and partly due to a decrease in upland rice area. Patterns of rice area changes and related emission changes differ considerably among countries. On the basis of the rice area increases between 1960 and the 1990s, significant increases in methane emissions from rice fields due to increases in total rice cultivated area are not to be expected in the future. The impact of modern rice variety adoption is assessed by relating methane emissions to rice production. The organic matter returned to the paddy soil is largely determined by rice biomass production which, given a certain yield, is different for traditional and modern rice varieties. By calculating total organic matter returned to rice paddy soils and assuming a constant fraction to be emitted as methane, rice production and methane emission can be related. The analysis indicates that (1) up to now, rice yield increases in countries with high modern rice variety adoption have not resulted in increased methane emissions per unit of harvested area and, (2) global annual emission from rice fields may be considerably lower than generally assumed. The introduction of modern rice varieties can be regarded as a historical methane emission mitigation strategy because higher rice yields resulted in lower or equal methane emissions.