Rice feeds more than half the world. Growing it also makes rice paddies one of farming’s biggest greenhouse gas sources.
🏛️ Must Know
Why Rice Tops This Particular List
- Rice, Not Wheat or Cotton Among major crops, rice is the most important anthropogenic source of both methane and nitrous oxide.
- Methane From Flooding Flooded paddy fields create oxygen-poor soil. Methane-producing bacteria thrive there and release methane as they break down organic matter.
- Nitrous Oxide From Fertiliser Nitrous oxide comes from nitrogen fertiliser use combined with the wet-dry cycling common in rice farming.
Good to Know
📘 Good to Know
How Big a Share This Actually Is
- A Real Global Share Global rice production is responsible for roughly 11% of all anthropogenic methane emissions worldwide.
- Why Cotton, Sugarcane, and Wheat Miss This List Cotton, sugarcane, and wheat are not typically grown under continuous flooding, so they don’t generate methane the same way.
- A Double Climate Problem Rice paddies uniquely combine both gases at scale, making rice farming a genuine double-target for climate mitigation research.
📝 Previous Year Questions
UPSC CSP 2022 — Which Crop Drives Both Gases
- UPSC 2022 Rice is the most important anthropogenic source of both methane and nitrous oxide among major crops. See UPSC CSP 2022 GS Paper I, Q21. View this question.
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Great to Know
🌟 Great to Know
What Farmers Are Doing About It
- Alternate Wetting and Drying Periodically drying rice fields instead of keeping them continuously flooded can cut methane emissions substantially.
- Better Fertiliser Timing Applying nitrogen fertiliser more precisely, matched to the crop’s actual growth stage, reduces nitrous oxide losses.
- Connects to Other PYQ Facts These same water-management techniques appear again in UPSC’s questions on the System of Rice Intensification.
For more on India’s rice sector, see IndEco0092 — Rice Cultivation in India.
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