THE International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and global chemical company BASF will collaborate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from rice production. According to IRRI, rice ranks among the top five cereal crops cultivated worldwide with the majority of its production coming from Asia. "Due to this large carbon footprint, it is estimated that rice production has the greatest potential within agricultural crop production to reduce GHG emissions," said the IRRI. The IRRI has started to enhance its crop modeling system called Oryza, integrating new algorithms to estimate GHG emissions. Moreover, both BASF and IRRI targets to support farmers growing rice in transitioning to low-carbon production systems.
