Rice fields emit up to 2.5 Gt of CO2e per annum, when looking at the warming potential of methane over a 100 year period. Recent research by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines indicates organic wet paddy rice growing can emit over double the methane emissions of rice grown using agrochemicals. This is because organic farmers use more organic matter such as manures, and it is organic matter in flooded anaerobic conditions that stimulates the growth of the anaerobic bacteria that create methane. It is possible the government there and in other rice growing countries, if pushed by the agrochemical companies such as Monsanto, could ban the growing of organic rice on the premise it will add to the country's greenhouse gas emissions. While this is not likely we need to counter with trials that show you can reduce emissions through organic techniques. Or even go one better and develop natural organic techniques that stop the methane emissions completely AND turn the paddy fields into carbon sinks. Many paddy fields soil are low in carbon and when they are drained and left fallow they become carbon dioxide emitters, as the exposed soil carbon is oxidised and turned into carbon dioxide. The third main greenhouse gas (after carbon dioxide and methane) is nitrous oxide emissions from the use of nitrogen chemical fertilisers and overuse of animal manures. While methane has around 25 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide has nearly 300 times! It is also the main atmospheric pollutant in some countries, and so a perfect climate-friendly rice growing system would also sequest atmospheric nitrogen in much the same way legumes do to reduce the need for nitrogen fertiliser. So now we know what to aim for - an organic way to stop methane emissions from flooded rice fields, and that also gets them to sequest nitrogen when flooded and sequest carbon when drained. The method has to be cheap and easy and if permaculture based it also needs to help close the food-waste-food cycle. Currently 40% of the food that is grown is wasted and much ends up in landfill where it creates methane. With conventional composting you can lose up to 3/4 of the nitrogen and carbon as it oxides and converts to carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, which is one reason a
compost pile loses mass. The perfect system then also needs to convert the food waste to fertiliser without creating any greenhouse gases, and be carried out in closed containers that keep insects and rodents out and smells in. Many rice growing countries have a tropical climate and large amounts of waste food being composted in the open would attract vermin and spread disease. Once the rice fields are converted to organic growing then sustainable traditional techniques can be reintroduced such as fish and ducks and fruit trees, turning them into flourishing polycultures. However first we need an enclosed system that will convert food waste into a liquid organic probiotic fertiliser using natural bacterial action that doesn't create methane or oxidise carbon or nitrogen and pulls the nutrients and natural phytochemicals and enzymes into the liquid, and for that fertiliser to supress the methanogenesis microbiome and replace it with beneficial natural non-sulphuric phytosynthetic bacteria that utilises infrared light (warmth) to sequest nitrogen in anaerobic conditions and sequests carbon in aerobic conditions. Wow, even saying it is a bit much! THE GREAT NEWS IS WE ALREADY HAVE IT! An Australian permaculturist spent 16 years tinkering with EM (Effective Microorganisms) and not only added the extra purple non-sulphuric photosynthetic bacteria and other beneficial soil bacteria, he also created a stable culture by incorporating an 8-step circular process. This means an organic fertiliser based on EM/bokashi can be produced that is stable enough for broadscale commercial purposes. With conventional EM, often only used in home bokashi composting systems, the liquid produced has to be used within a week as the bacterial balance goes out. The same guy developed a unit for commercial kitchens called a Bio-Regen unit that is like a food grinder disposal unit, but instead of going down the drain the minced food waste is automatically inoculated with his modified EM and washed with a little water into 1,000 litre IBC tanks where it undergoes anaerobic fermentation for a month. Trials using the probiotic liquid fertiliser in the Burdekin farmlands in Queensland, Australia, showed staggering soil carbon increases with one property going from 0.09% soil carbon to over 3% in just one year. I saw a Bio-Regen unit in operation at a residential college in Townsville, Australia, in early 2013 just after it had bern installed. In the first four months of operation it converted 5 tons of food waste into 11,000 litres of liquid organic probiotic fertiliser, known as xlr8. The small units can handle about a third of a ton of food waste a day, and the guy has just brought out a larger model. I had just been asked to build a couple of food garden beds at the uni and when i saw the 1,000 litre tanks of food waste undergoing anaerobic fermentation without creating methane a lightbulb went off, and I developed my carbon-negative BioWicked urban food growing beds that are basically soil-only wicking beds (no sand or gravel layer) that use the xlr8 to stop methane emissions from the saturated anaerobic soil layer. The wet xlr8 saturated soil pulls nitrogen from the air into the lower part of the bed where it wicks up to the plant roots. Once the bacteria in thd xlr8 wicks up into the aerobic higher sections of soil it switches function and sequests carbon, improving soil structure and water+nutrient holding capability and turning the BioWicked beds into urban carbon sinks. I'vd been experimenting with the BioWicked carbon-negative organic waste recycling and food production system for three years now and slowly getting my web page at <www.biowicked.com> together, where i will be sharing everything i have learnt about carbon negative farming. Which reminds me, I started this post today as I would love to win one of Eric's new book on carbon farming techniques as it is over A$130 to get it and I'm saving for the first step of these rice field trials. Anyway, back to the rice field trials. There is some more info about it at <www.tropicaloffsets.com> which also goes into how the xlr8 could be combined with Mike Hands (Inga Foundation) alley cropping techniques to boost mycorrhizal growth and assist in phosphate cycling in non-rice growing tropical areas. For info or to help get the initial alley crop trials happening this October check out <www.gofundme.com/Penan>. These trials will be an example for an indigenous tribe in northern Borneo on how to replace swidden agriculture with a system that requires no burning and uses about a sixth the land area for the same yield, freeing up rainforest areas from conversion to agriculture due to growing populations and allowing them to retain their remaining intact forest as a hunting/gathering reserve. Any questions or if you think you can help, financially or otherwise, contact me at <
drytropics@gmail.com>