A group led by Prof. Zhang Weijian at the Institute of Crop Sciences of CAAS published an article titled “Increased harvest index has a limited potential to reduce methane emissions from rice paddies” in Global Change Biology. They found the improvement of rice harvest index (HI) could reduce methane (CH4) emissions only under continuous flood irrigation and had inconspicuous effects under intermittent irrigation. Future rice breeding efforts aimed at HI improvement will have the CH4 emission reduction potential of less than 4.4 percent. The findings can provide theoretical basis for paddy CH4 emission assessment and rice planting innovation with low carbon emission.
Effects of rice harvest index (HI) improvement on grain yield and methane (CH4) emissions from paddy fields under continuous flood (CF) and intermittent irrigation (II) systems.