| Sumario: | Methane (CH4) emissions from paddy fields contribute significantly to agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, posing a critical challenge for achieving global climate goals. Despite the availability of the Tier 3 method—which utilizes process-based models and high-resolution datasets to capture variability in site-specific CH4 emissions, its application has been limited to a few countries. There is still a large gap in establishing country and regional specific emissions factors and an increasing demand to measure actual emissions from the field. These requirements are not only for country-level inventories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) but also for the emerging carbon market in the agricultural sector. Significant efforts are being invested in advancing technologies and options
for targeting and supporting climate mitigation initiatives in rice systems. Measurements and monitoring are critical in setting the baseline for these initiatives and in evaluating the progress made. However, their implementation remains challenging due to limited consensus in protocols for measurements, as well as the limited accessibility of tools and technologies for measurements, modeling and monitoring of emissions.
Modeling is central to bridging experimental research data with actionable mitigation and adaptation strategies at scale. Current models can reliably simulate yield, water balance, and basic soil–nutrient interactions, but they struggle with trade-offs between methane reduction and nitrous oxide emissions, or with integrating soil carbon dynamics.
Owing to the serious impacts of the climate crisis in crop production and human health, global assessments of GHG emissions through measurements and modeling are urgently needed to accelerate efforts in developing resilient food systems in all rice-growing countries around the world.
The “Greenhouse Gas Fluxes and Modeling from Rice Workshop” was convened to address these challenges. The workshop was held from 1–5 September 2025 at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los Baños, Philippines, jointly led by IRRI, AgMIP, and the Global Methane Hub—with support from CGIAR Climate Action and Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).The workshop gathered more than 80 participants from 40 organizations across 25 regions and brought together perspectives from research, stakeholders engaged in national GHG inventories, UNFCCC reporting, and the carbon market.
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