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Impact of Rice

Rice is a staple food crop for humanity, 900 million of the world’s poor depend on rice as producers or consumers. It is a fundamental crop that will need to increase its production from 479 million tons to 551 tons by 2030. This means that rice crops play a fundamental role in food security and its plating area of around 116 million hectares per year worldwide. This makes the rice crop a good candidate to increase carbon capture capacity and achieve an increase in soil organic carbon stocks (SOC). The main purpose of this research area is to improve the carbon capture capacity of the rice crop, keeping the current yields or increasing it, to improve the adoption of new seeds by farmers. Also making it more suitable for crop rotation practices that also foster the carbon capture capacity of the crop under a less intensive cropping system.

Our innovative approach

Exploring crop-based carbon capture, our project focuses on optimizing rice traits for a dual role: sustaining food security and enhancing carbon sequestration. Leveraging genetic diversity, we aim to reinforce roots for increased subterranean carbon allocation, addressing length, structure, and composition.

Outcomes / Outputs

The main outcome is the identification and development of deep-rooted rice for improving carbon storage in tropical soils.
Identification of root traits correlated with higher carbon capture

Future steps

From the first cycle of the trial at CIAT, differences in soil structure have been found. In the future, the amount of seed to be placed in the seeder will be reduced from 3.5 grams per metro line to 3 grams per metro line. The percentage of plant establishment in the field has improved, obtaining between 85 and 90% of plants.