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Greenhouse gas emissions from rice based cropping systems: Economic and technologic challenges and opportunities

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Abstract

Recent market slump in rice, less rainfall during monsoon, high temperature and scarcity of water during dry season leads to lower grain yield and less profit from rice cultivation in India. Farmers’ grow upland crops like chickpea (Cicer arietinum), greengram (Vigna radiate), mustard (Brassica nigra), corn (Zea maize), pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan), potato (Solanum tuberosum), sunflower (Helianthus annuus) etc. along with rice (Oryza sativa) during the dry season. However, knowledge of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission from these rice based cropping systems is very limited. In the present study four rice based cropping systems was studied along with rice-rice rotation system as control in respect of GHG emission, yield potential and economic feasibility. Conventional plantation and fertilizer application methodology was followed for each crop. Methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) flux from field plots were studied with conventional closed chamber method using gas chromatograph. CH4 flux was recorded highest from rice-rice rotation plots (304.25 kg ha−1). N2O flux was recorded 1.02 kg ha−1 from rice-rice rotation system during wet season. However, during wet season, higher N2O flux (1.93 kg ha−1) was recorded from rice-potato-sesame rotation plots. Annual N2O flux was also recorded significantly low (3.42 kg ha−1) from rice-rice rotation plots and high (6.19 kg ha−1) from rice-chickpea-greengram rotation plots. Significantly lower annual grain yield was recorded from rice-rice rotation plots (9.25 Mg ha−1) whereas it was 18.84 Mg rice eq ha−1 from rice-potato-sesame rotation system. The global warming potential (GWP) of rice-rice rotation system was recorded significantly high (8.62 Mg CO2 ha−1) compare to plots with different rice based cropping systems. Computing all C-emission from cradle-to-grave, highest total C-cost was recorded from the rice-rice rotation system ($62.00 ha−1). We have made an attempt to calculate the C-credit of different rice based cropping systems by considering the difference of C-cost with control. The study suggests that the rice-potato-sesame is most sustainable among different cropping system studied in terms of economic profit ($1248.21 ha−1) and C-credit ($38.60 ha−1). The result of the study may be limited to the study region; however, the study has potential use in respect to the development of agriculture practice for adaptation to climate change.

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Acknowledgement

Authors are thankful to the Director, Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Orissa for providing permission to conduct the experiment. A. Datta is thankful to Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India for providing support to publish this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Radio and Atmospheric Sciences Division, National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, 100 012, India

    A. Datta & T. K. Mandal

  2. C-MASC, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    A. Datta

  3. Crop Production Division, Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Orissa, India

    K. S. Rao & T. K. Adhya

  4. Department of Environmental Science, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, West Bengal, India

    S. C. Santra

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  1. A. Datta
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Datta, A., Rao, K.S., Santra, S.C. et al. Greenhouse gas emissions from rice based cropping systems: Economic and technologic challenges and opportunities. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change 16, 597–615 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-011-9284-z

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