Greenhouse gas Mitigation in Irrigated Rice Systems in Asia

Project team in Vietnam

The project on Greenhouse gas Mitigation in Irrigated Rice Systems in Asia (MIRSA) seeks to develop an improved water management, based on alternate wetting and drying (AWD), that can always reduce soil-derived CO2-eq emissions (CH4 + N2O) during the rice growing season from irrigated rice paddies, by 30% compared to the conventional practice.

To achieve this objective, simultaneous experimental field demonstration trials are being conducted in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines to assess the site-specific feasibility of AWD as a mitigation option for CH4+N2O emissions from irrigated rice fields.

Project activities

Creation of implementation standards for AWD by each member country to meet the emission reduction target (improved system)
Comprehensive analysis of the findings to establish a generalized scientific knowledge about the influence of the improved system on greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction
Setting-up an information infrastructure to achieve the emission reduction target from a point scale to a national scale
Creation of implementation guidelines for “measurement, reporting and verification” that provide guidance on techniques to reduce GHG emissions from irrigated paddy fields ensuring accuracy and transparency

Expected outputs

Guidelines on the effective implementation of AWD at multiple locations in Southeast Asia to achieve the emission reduction target of 30% relative to the conventional water management
A generalized scientific knowledge about the influence of AWD on GHG emission reduction