HYDERABAD: Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University’s (PJTSAU) recent study on dangerous emissions from paddy cultivation says that CO2 equivalent to paddy fields from Telangana is only 2.5 lakh tonnes but not in crore tonnes.
The university also said that rice cultivation has its own benefits like increasing the organic carbon in the soil.
“For example, the typical emissions from a passenger vehicle are 120 gm/km. Using an average monthly travel distance of 200 km for each car, it is 24 kg per month and 288 kg per year. Even if we assume that each passenger vehicle emits 250 kg of CO2 per year, the total number of vehicles in Telangana that emit CO2 comparable to paddy fields should be 2.5 lakh tonnes,” university vice-chancellor Dr Pravin Rao told TOI.
Furthermore, Dr Rao said some aspects have to be necessarily taken into consideration while computing overall CO2 emissions. “Through photosynthesis, the rice plant also absorbs CO2 from the environment. The degradation of biomass adds organic carbon to the soil. Algal blooms in rice fields also collect a certain amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” he said. He observed that that long-term ponding of water in paddy cultivation helps to a large extent in groundwater recharge. This is an ecosystem advantage in paddy cultivation that was not previously acknowledged. Without understanding these factors, emissions approach used appears to be inappropriate,” he pointed out.
According to him, India is among the very few countries that are meeting the international treaty-mandated carbon emissions objective. “The recent Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also made these remarks, and unlike many advanced countries, India and especially Telangana are performing considerably better in this regard,” he said. The paddy cultivation does not pose any threat at the current level, he assured.
