eFinder

eFinder

Home › Article

Rice feeds billions of people – but its role in fueling climate change is growing

The Conversation · · 1105 words · By Hanqin Tian; Jingting Zhang; Pep Canadell; Shufen Pan

A team of scientists analyzed global greenhouse gas emissions from rice production from 1961 to 2020, finding that emissions have nearly doubled since the 1960s. The study identifies key drivers such as expanded cultivation and intensified management practices, while suggesting that a combination of climate-smart strategies could reduce emissions by 10% by midcentury.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://theconversation.com/rice-feeds-billions-of-people-but-its-role-in-fuelin…

analyticsAnalysis

10%
Propaganda Score
confidence: 95%
Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

fact_checkFact-Check Results

15 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

info Single Source 7
schedule Pending 5
help Insufficient Evidence 2
verified Verified By Reference 1
verified
“Rice feeds more than half the world.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Both Wikipedia and Britannica explicitly state that rice is the staple food for over half of the world's population.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Declan Rice (born 14 January 1999) is an English professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Premier League club Arsenal and the England national team. Known for his versatility, s…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declan_Rice
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Rice is a cereal grain and, in its domesticated form, is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species Oryza sativa (As…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Rice is a cereal grain. Rice, Rice's, or Rices may also refer to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_(disambiguation)
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
“greenhouse gas emissions from rice paddies have nearly doubled globally since the 1960s”
SINGLE SOURCE
While sources confirm rice paddies are a major source of GHG emissions and methane, none of the provided evidence mentions a specific 'doubling' trend since the 1960s.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Greenhouse gas emissions per person in the highest-emitting countries. Areas of rectangles represent total emissions for each country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas_emissions
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Rice paddies are considered the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural sector in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂-eq). . Additionally, space technology has the capacity …
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/satellite-provides-insights-g…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Global greenhouse gas emissions. How much greenhouse gases does the world emit every year?Rice cultivation produces methane — waterlogged paddy fields provide an ideal environment for microbes to prod…
https://ourworldindata.org/greenhouse-gas-emissions
info
“averaging about 1.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions per year in the 2010s”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided evidence discusses GHG emissions generally but does not mention the specific figure of 1.1 billion tons of CO2-equivalent for the 2010s.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Greenhouse gas emissions per person in the highest-emitting countries. Areas of rectangles represent total emissions for each country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas_emissions
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Annual methane emissions: how much do we emit each year? This interactive chart shows methane (CH₄) emissions across the world. Methane emissions are measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (C…
https://ourworldindata.org/greenhouse-gas-emissions
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — CO₂ GDP Emissions are expressed in tons of CO₂ per $1000USD (tCO₂/1k$). The Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) combines data for certain countries and territories. France inclu…
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/co2-emiss…
info
“That’s roughly equal to the annual emissions of 239 million cars.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The search results for this claim returned basic definitions of the number 1 and did not provide any data comparing rice emissions to car emissions.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and grapheme. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Nov 11, 2019 · Learn the different ways number 1 can be represented. See the number one on a number line, five frame, ten frame, numeral, word, dice, dominoes, tally mark, fingers and picture represen…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJMfmGU4VMY
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Apr 24, 2026 · Tenth century “West Arabic” variation of the Nepali form of Hindu-Arabic numerals (compare Devanagari script १ (1, “éka”)), possibly influenced by Roman numeral Ⅰ, both ultimately from …
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/1
info
“This makes rice-growing the largest emissions source in agriculture outside of livestock”
SINGLE SOURCE
One web search result mentions rice paddies are 'considered the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural sector in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent', but it does not explicitly qualify this as 'outside of livestock' in the provided snippet.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Rice is a cereal grain and, in its domesticated form, is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species Oryza sativa (As…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — May 8, 2026 · Rice is an edible starchy cereal grain and the plant by which it is produced. Roughly one-half of the world population, including virtually all of East and Southeast Asia, is wholly depe…
https://www.britannica.com/plant/rice
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — May 3, 2026 · Long grain, wild, and more—we’re covering all the types of rice and what you can do with them. Our experts teach you how to prepare these delicious rice varieties.
https://www.realsimple.com/types-of-rice-7644300
info
“If every grower used the best currently available “climate-smart” options, we found that global rice emissions could be reduced by about 10% by midcentury.”
SINGLE SOURCE
Sources mention 'climate-smart' initiatives and the goal of reducing emissions, but none provide the specific quantitative projection of a 10% reduction by midcentury.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — FONTI climate smart rice farming launch.Beyond technical solutions, DRIC will analyse stakeholder perceptions, identify appropriate practices for local conditions, model both yields and emissions, and…
https://sgciafrica.org/fonsti-launches-climate-smart-rice-fa…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Satellite technology driving climate-smart rice production in Vietnam. Rice farming is a cornerstone of Vietnam’s culture and economy, providing livelihoods for millions and serving as a daily staple.
https://thebpp.com.au/blog/bpp-partnership-impact-series-inc…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Comparing the climate smartness of a single practice across contexts (across space and time). Comparing the climate smartness of a contextualized practice to a hypothetical target or reference (which …
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-system…
info
“Just over half of the global increase is from the expansion of rice-growing areas.”
SINGLE SOURCE
No evidence provided specifies the percentage of emission increases attributed to the expansion of rice-growing areas.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Rice plant (Oryza sativa) with branched panicles containing many grains on each stem. Rice grains of different varieties at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Rice farming is known to be a major contributor to climate change , but new research suggests it is far bigger a problem than previously thought. Techniques intended to reduce emissions while also cut…
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/rice-farmi…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Rice cultivation is a significant source of methane emissions in the agriculture sector in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In Africa, rice is grown in flooded conditions, which promote the release of methan…
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44279-026-00486-7
info
“In Africa, for example, the rice-growing area has roughly doubled since the 1960s”
SINGLE SOURCE
While sources discuss rice cultivation in Africa, none of the provided evidence confirms that the area has 'roughly doubled since the 1960s'.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Rice is a cereal grain and, in its domesticated form, is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species Oryza sativa (As…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Cultivated rice is generally considered a semiaquatic annual grass, although in the tropics it can survive as a perennial, producing new tillers from nodes after harvest (ratooning). At maturity, the …
https://archive.org/stream/RiceAlmanac/RiceAlmanac_djvu.txt
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — The origin of African cultivated rice (Oryza glaberrima) has been debated for over half a century, with many aspects of its domestication process remaining unclear. Through an extensive population ana…
https://www.cell.com/molecular-plant/fulltext/S1674-2052(25)…
help
“helping drive a twofold rise in methane emissions in the region.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found for this claim in the provided search results.
help
“leaving rice stalks in the field after harvest and then plowing them into the soil to improve soil fertility – was responsible for about 18% of rice’s increase in overall net emissions since the 1960s.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found for this claim in the provided search results.
schedule
“Use of synthetic nitrogen increased by about 76% after 2000”
PENDING
schedule
“It contributed about 9% of the increase in total global net emissions from human activities.”
PENDING
schedule
“Over the past two decades, however, more farmers have used intermittent flooding – draining their fields periodically.”
PENDING
schedule
“This change has lowered methane emissions compared with keeping the paddies continuously flooded.”
PENDING
schedule
“we found a slight increase in nitrogen oxide emissions as soils cycled between wet and dry”
PENDING
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.