In Vietnam, farmers reduce methane emissions by changing how they grow rice

Published 2024년 4월 23일

Tridge summary

In southern Vietnam, farmer Vo Van Van is experimenting with innovative rice cultivation techniques, including less water usage and drone-assisted fertilization, in an effort to reduce methane emissions from rice paddies, which are a significant contributor to global warming. These techniques, supported by the Loc Troi Group, a large rice exporter, include alternate wetting and drying methods that use less water and organic fertilizer, and the collection of rice stubble for use in livestock feed and straw mushroom cultivation, thereby eliminating the need for burning. These practices not only help reduce methane emissions but also lower costs for farmers and offer a higher selling price for the organic rice produced. Vietnam, the world's third-largest rice exporter, is not only adopting these practices on a small scale but also aims to expand them across 300,000 hectares by 2030, with the support of the World Bank and other organizations, in an effort to mitigate climate change impacts on the Mekong Delta. The article highlights the need for more countries to adopt similar practices and discusses the potential of diversifying rice varieties to enhance resilience to climate change.
Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

There is one thing that distinguishes 60-year-old Vo Van Van's rice fields from a mosaic of thousands of other emerald fields across Long An province in southern Vietnam's Mekong Delta: It isn't entirely flooded.That and the giant drone, its wingspan similar to that of an eagle, chuffing high above as it rains organic fertilizer onto the knee-high rice seedlings billowing below.Using less water and using a drone to fertilize are new techniques that Van is trying and Vietnam hopes will help solve a paradox at the heart of growing rice: The finicky crop isn't just vulnerable to climate change but also contributes uniquely to it.Rice must be grown separately from other crops and seedlings have to be individually planted in flooded fields; backbreaking, dirty work requiring a lot of labor and water that generates a lot of methane, a potent planet-warming gas that can trap more than 80-times more heat in the atmosphere in the short term than carbon dioxide.It's a problem unique to ...
Source: Phys

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