Climate Mitigation in rice agriculture through AWD, our ” Keep it Cool” Project

AWD stands for Alternative wetting and drying: Irrigated rice fields are irrigated on and off. Between flooding periods the fields are let fall dry until the water reaches 15 cm below soil level.
Working closely with  MyClimate and Goldstandard since 2020 and under an LOI with the Thai Royal Irrigation Department, we established the first Gold Standard Certified Rice Production with reduced Methane Emissions in Thailand.
Methane Emission Reductions by about 50% are a huge success.
 

Our AWD program is wildly successful for the participating farmers

From the proceeds of the produced carbon credits we we give an important share to the farmers in the form of organic fertilizer. 
AWD, the organic fertilizer and other agricultural guidance shared by our agriculturalists result in yield increases of up to 40%, increased water holding capacity and much softer soils, indicating in increase in life in the initially rather poor, sandy soils. also the water consumption goes down by about 15% which is an important benefit for the overall availability of irrigation water.
 

The potential of AWD in Thailand

In large parts of Thailand rice is grown without irrigation and with the water exclusively supplied by the monsoon rains between end of May and middle of October. 
Some areas – mostly along the river system and agricultural areas downstream of reservoirs can grow a second rice crop between December and May.

AWD can be practiced only during the second crop, outside of the monsoon time because only the water levels can be controlled enough to have wet and dry periods resulting in the AWD typical reduced methane emissions.

Growing 3 rice crops is greatly discouraged as it puts too much stress on water resources and needs huge inputs of pesticides, herbicides and such.

Of the 11 Million hectare of rice grown throughout the year, 9.5 Mio hectare are grown during the rainy season and about 1.5 Mio are grown outside of the rainy season.

So, while AWD is a brilliant method to grow rice with a smaller water footprint and lower Methane emissions, its potential is limited to  about 14% of Thailands rice growing surface.

We will continue with our Gold Standard approved AWD project and will expand it in our project areas in Sakon Nakorn  and Srisaket and we are happy to talk with anybody who is interested in AWD.

But there is more …

 When we learned about the great work that String Bio has done in India with the selection and successful multiplication of methanotrophic microorganisms we were fascinated.
After studying its potential, we are deeply convinced that CleanRise can make a key contribution to reducing the ecological footprint of the Thai rice industry.