The International Rice Research Institute and chemicals company BASF are expanding a joint research programme into soil carbon and biochar. The goal is to cut methane emissions from rice farming, the organisations said. Rice paddies are among agriculture’s largest sources of methane, a greenhouse gas with outsized short-term warming effects compared with carbon dioxide.
The expanded partnership builds on earlier work between IRRI and BASF to reduce rice’s carbon footprint through improved water management and soil treatments. The new phase focuses on measuring how soil carbon amendments and biochar, a charcoal-like material made from organic waste, affect methane output and soil health in flooded rice fields.
Rice is a staple crop for more than half the world’s population, and most of it is grown in flooded paddies that create low-oxygen conditions ideal for methane-producing microbes. Reducing that methane load without cutting yields has become a priority for international agricultural research bodies. Countries are looking for ways to meet climate pledges without raising food prices in the process.
Soil health adds a second benefit
Researchers say biochar and other soil carbon treatments offer a secondary benefit beyond emissions: improved soil structure and nutrient retention, which can support yields over time even as water management practices change. IRRI has previously promoted alternate wetting and drying, a technique that reduces the time fields spend flooded, as one of the most effective ways to lower methane from rice without major yield losses. Combining that water management approach with soil carbon treatments is one of the questions the expanded research programme is designed to answer.
The research will be tested across IRRI’s network of experimental stations in Asia, where rice varieties and soil types vary widely between countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. Any methods proven effective would need to be adapted to local farming conditions before reaching smallholder farmers. Those farmers grow the majority of the region’s rice on plots too small to absorb expensive new technology easily. Extension systems in several Southeast Asian countries have struggled in the past to carry research-station findings through to widespread farmer adoption. IRRI has flagged that adoption gap as a priority alongside the science itself.
Industry funding meets public research
BASF’s involvement reflects a wider trend of agrochemical companies funding low-emission farming research as regulatory and consumer pressure grows around agriculture’s climate footprint. Food and beverage companies further down the supply chain have also begun asking rice suppliers for emissions data, adding a commercial incentive alongside the scientific case for methane reduction. IRRI has not published a timeline for when findings from the expanded programme might translate into recommendations for farmers, saying only that the work builds on data from earlier trials. The institute has said it will share interim results with national agricultural agencies across the region as trial data becomes available, rather than waiting for the full programme to conclude.
The partnership adds to a growing body of research aimed at rice’s climate impact. Governments across Asia are weighing methane-reduction commitments against the political sensitivity of changing how the region’s most important staple crop is grown. Several Southeast Asian governments have already included rice-sector methane cuts in their national climate plans. That makes practical, scalable techniques like those under study at IRRI increasingly central to whether those pledges can be met, and increasingly closely watched by trading partners assessing the carbon footprint of imported rice.
