Every bit counts.
Agriculture's impact on the climate.
15% of global methane emissions come from rice production.
In Asia, >33% of methane emissions come from rice production.
Methane does > 80X more warming than Carbon Dioxide in a 20 year period and > 28X more warming than Carbon Dioxide in a 100 year period.
"Methane is responsible for around 30% of the current rise in global temperature." -IEA, Sources of methane emissions, 2021, IEA, Paris
The methane emissions from agriculture, and specifically rice production, are greater than oil, gas, and coal combined.
Why do rice fields create immense methane?
The primary reason for methane emissions in rice cultivation is the anaerobic (low-oxygen) conditions that prevail in flooded paddy fields, which provide an ideal environment for methanogenic bacteria to thrive.
These bacteria reside in the waterlogged soil and produce methane as a byproduct of their metabolic processes. They consume organic matter, such as plant residues and soil organic carbon, and convert it into methane through a process called methanogenesis. The methane gas then diffuses into the atmosphere.
How does our approach eliminate the methane?
Aeroponic rice cultivation involves growing rice plants in an air or mist environment without soil. In this system, rice plants are usually grown in containers or structures where their roots are suspended in air or intermittently sprayed with a nutrient-rich mist. Since the roots are not submerged in water as in traditional paddy fields, the anaerobic conditions necessary for methanogenic bacteria to produce methane are absent.
How many acres must we upgrade and what are the consequences?
We are aiming to get the world to upgrade 30 million acres to this technology over the next 25 years. That's enough acres to eliminate all methane from rice production. Since the upgrade costs more than 450 Billion dollars ($50/ person on Earth), it is possible. However, $450 billion is difficult to source for a cause with no immediate effects on climate. The best path forward is to make the technology break even so fast, that farmers and governments adopt it naturally in order to make great profits.
Currently, with our technology, we allow a 3 year break even through rice and 3-9 month break even through vegetables.
The break even time allows exponential growth of infrastructure if profits are re-invested in scaling infrastructure. This is the key to contributing to the solution of several global problems. Exponential growth of existing farmers, coupled with adding more and more new farmers into the exponential growth plan each year (from across the globe), helps reduce poverty, make organic food abundant, and make a serious impact on climate.