Researchers want to make rice cultivation more climate-friendly

In the Southeast Asian country, it is customary to burn the straw of the rice plants after harvest. That is not exactly climate-friendly. If the straw remains on the fields, it also harms the climate, because bacteria break down the remains of the rice plant into methane.

That is a big problem, because rice cultivation is responsible for 10 percent of annual methane emissions. And methane is much more harmful to the climate than CO2. Various initiatives in the country want to change this by using the straw wisely – for example as a breeding ground for mushrooms.

Farmers can now sell the straw
“We can now sell the straw or grow mushrooms on it and earn extra money that way. You can even buy the waste from mushroom farms and use it as organic fertilizer,” says farmer Dong Van Canh. Machines that roll the straw into bales help the farmers with their work.

“In recent years, better machines have been developed, such as the straw roll. That is why much less straw is now burned, although I do not have any statistics on this at the moment. In any case, many farmers have started collecting the straw to benefit from it,” says agricultural expert Pham Van Quynh.

Rice cultivation will probably never become climate neutral
Researchers in Vietnam are also working on other methods to reduce methane emissions from rice cultivation. For example, ethanol or biodegradable drinking straws must be produced from the straw in just 90 days. But rice cultivation will probably never become truly climate neutral.