IRRI News

The Council for Partnership on Rice Research in Asia (CORRA) recently hosted an online science webinar entitled “Rice Straw Management: Scaling GHG Emission-Reducing Technologies and Practices” that presented different options for repurposing the rice byproduct, as an alternative to the practice of rice straw burning.

Every year, over 600 million tonnes of rice straw is produced after rice harvesting globally. In South and Southeast Asia, the traditional practice of many rice farmers, especially poor smallholders, has been to burn the rice straw in the field in order to clear the paddy quickly for the next planting. However, studies on rice straw burning have shown that this practice is detrimental, as it produces high GHG emissions as well as toxic particulates that negatively affect human health. Rice straw burning also causes nutrient and biodiversity loss in the soil, which impacts the long-term sustainability of rice fields.

Held last September 8, the CORRA science webinar featured Dr. Hung Van Nguyen, a lead scientist of the International Rice Research Institute on various rice straw, rice byproducts, and bioenergy projects across Asia. Dr. Nguyen works in collaboration with national partners in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Myanmar, as well as with international entities such as the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the CGIAR Research Program on Rice. 

During the webinar, Dr. Nguyen enumerated the various uses of rice straw once collected and processed. These included agricultural uses like compost, biochar, mushroom production, and livestock feed; energy uses like heating, electricity generation, and biogas; and industrial uses like building materials and biodegradable biofiber. He however noted that not all of these options are economically viable. Dr. Nguyen then shared examples and case studies of the various opportunities for sustainable rice straw management. These included:

• - Mechanized rice straw collection
• - Mushroom production
• - Ruminant feed.
• - Compost.
• - Biodegradable products.

See https://www.irri.org/news-and-events/news/corra-webinar-shares-opportunities-sustainable-rice-straw-management