Cutting Methane and Boosting Rice with Farmer Data

Rice sustains billions of people globally, but flooded paddies are also a major source of methane—a potent, short-lived climate pollutant and ozone precursor. In the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, methane from rice accounts for roughly half of agricultural emissions, making these sectors pivotal to climate action and air-quality gains. At the same time, farm incomes are thin, water is increasingly scarce, and adoption of climate-smart practices has lagged without clear incentives and affordable ways to monitor results. 

Across the three countries, studies show that many farmers already practice intermittent drainage, occasionally letting water drain from their rice fields instead of keeping them constantly flooded, which helps save water and reduce methane emissions, though they do so inconsistently. Additionally, after harvesting rice, many farmers burn the leftover stalks to clear fields quickly, releasing harmful pollutants into the air. 

That leaves a large implementation gap between the countries’ climate and public health agendas and the reality in the agricultural space.  

In Thailand, for example, 80% of surveyed farmers with access to irrigation said they let their rice fields dry out several times during the growing season instead of keeping them flooded. Many still burn leftover rice straw after harvest—mainly because cleaner alternatives, like turning it into compost or animal feed, can be expensive or hard to access. 

In the Philippines, many farmers with access to irrigation keep their fields continuously flooded and leave leftover rice stalks in the ground, incorporating them into the soil. This practice contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.  

While many of these farmers are willing to adopt low-emission practices when offered incentives and training, systems to measure, report, and verify emissions, as well as financing channels, need to catch up. The bottom line is adoption is feasible, and farmers are interested -- as long as the policy and funding environment enables low-emission rice practices to proliferate. 

COLLECTING FARMER-INFORMED EVIDENCE

The CCAC-funded Accelerating Methane Reductions (AMR) project, implemented by IRRI at the request of the governments of the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, set out to achieve progress in lowering methane emissions in the rice sector by making low-emission practices the most practical and economically viable choice for farmers.

This process started by conducting farmer surveys to understand the barriers to transitioning to low-emission rice. It also explored the incentives needed to get farmers to actually sign up for to make the switch. In the study, three insights stood out: 

1. Incentives work, especially simple, direct ones: In Thailand, 80% of farmers preferred direct cash payments; average acceptable compensation clustered around THB 1,200/ha, varying widely by province. The data showed that incentives worked best when calibrated to local realities.

2. Short contracts beat long promises: Across countries, farmers favored 5–7 year commitments over decade-plus terms, even at higher prices, implying carbon programs should prioritize flexibility and renewal options. 

3. Training de-risks adoption: Skills support and extension boost willingness to adopt AWD, Direct-Seeded Rice (DSR), and improved straw management, especially when paired with fair, on-time payments. 

Evaluations and analysis by the project team showed that in every country, sustainable rice straw management emerged as the largest opportunity for emission reductions at the field level, along with alternate wetting and drying (AWD). The team then mapped out what it would take politically and economically to move from pilots of programs incentivizing low- emission rice cultivation practices to scale. This information informed regional guidance on policy and design of rice carbon projects and clarified the role carbon markets could play in scaling this initiative, making complex carbon market rules and quality standards easier for project partners to understand and apply.