Bayer, GenZero, Shell partner to cut Indian rice methane emissions

Bayer, GenZero, and Shell Energy India launched a collaboration to reduce methane emissions from rice cultivation in India through farmer training and remote-sensing MRV. The project targets agriculture's climate footprint in India, the world's second-largest rice producer, advancing low-carbon farming benchmarks.

Bayer is partnering with GenZero, Shell Energy India, and experts to demonstrate scalable methane-emission reductions from rice cultivation, training smallholder farmers and using remote sensing for accurate Measurement, Reporting & Verification (MRV). Rice cultivation contributes around 10% of global methane emissions, a gas with over 27 times the warming potential of CO2, and rice farms cover 15% of agricultural land using a third of global freshwater. Bayer's Sustainable Rice Project in India promotes Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) and Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) methods.

Indian smallholder rice farmers are directly affected, with the programme's first year targeting 25,000 hectares across the Kharif 2023 and Rabi 2023-24 seasons. India is the world's second-largest rice producer, making domestic decarbonisation central to addressing food security and climate. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) will provide scientific assessments of greenhouse gas reductions, water-use efficiency, and soil-health improvements. Benefits include water conservation in water-stressed regions, improved soil health, and enhanced farmer livelihoods through AWD and direct seeding adoption.

Indian agribusinesses, agricultural authorities, and carbon-credit stakeholders should monitor outcomes from the 25,000-hectare first phase, as success will pave the way for a larger-scale sustainable rice project. Farmers and suppliers can track the adoption of AWD and DSR methods and the remote-sensing MRV framework establishing a benchmark for similar efforts. Public-private partnership participants should watch IRRI's scientific assessments validating emission reductions, which will inform scaling low-carbon rice cultivation across water-stressed Indian agricultural regions.

Key figure — First-year coverage target: 25,000 hectares of rice cultivation