Intercropping: A Novel Strategy to Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Paddy Farming.

Together with wetlands, paddy fields account for two-thirds of 'natural' methane emissions and one quarter of total emissions globally. Being one of the world's most important staple foods, a major increase in the production of rice, will be indispensable in order to feed the burgeoning global population. This in turn is bound to increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions particularly methane, unless new mitigation strategies are developed and applied. This study explores the potential for developing new rice based cropping system integrated with novel strategies to mitigate GHG emissions. At the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH, Zurich), we conducted a number of experiments under controlled conditions as well as in the paddy fields (in India) to establish the proof of concept. We demonstrate that co-cultivation of rice together with other aquatic plant species results in lower emissions of methane. There are a number of aquatic plant species, which exist naturally in rice producing regions and are already part of human consumption in local cultures. These plant species possess the potential to offer GHG mitigation solutions at regional level, with a significant global impact and may eventually form a significant part of rice based cropping systems. Being economically useful, co-cultivation of rice with these plants would be sustainable both ecologically as well as economically. Results of the mesocosm and field experiemnts will be presented.