Open burning of rice straw (husks) is a common sight in most rice fields in the Philippines, yet farmers are unaware that this practice causes severe air pollution prompting researchers to find alternative ways on how farmers adopt more environmental-friendly rice straw management practices.
The Philippines produced around 9 million tons of rice straw each year from the 16 million tons of rice harvested from 2006 to 2010 in Central Luzon, Western Visayas, Cagayan Valley and the Ilocos region. From that, around 30 percent of farmers burnt their rice straw, while most of the rest were left in the fields, others were used for mulching non-rice crops and as animal feed.
According to a study funded by the Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA), an organization supporting training and research in environmental and resource economics, farmers opt to open-burn the straw on the field as it is the most economic and easiest way to dispose it.
“ Farmers’ choice of straw removal relative to burning is also significantly affected by the high cost of straw removal. The research recommend that policymakers must look at how best to reduce the cost of collection and transportation of rice straw,” stated the study led by Cheryll Launio from the Philippine Rice Research Institute.
Given the large volume of rice straw produced each year, local government agencies are unable to effectively implement the solid management law in the Philippines and the Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999 prohibiting open-field burning, it added.
The researchers looked into the environmental consequences of rice straw burning and other straw management practices in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, and evaluating the cost-effectiveness and adoption of selected rice straw management alternatives.
While most rice fields in the country is still harvested manually, farmers tend to leave around two-thirds of the rice plant from the portion of the plant as rice stubble in the ground.
The study looked into the emissions caused by rice straw burning as well as those caused by the incorporation of straw and stubble into wet soil during ploughing.
Further, it said that the management and disposal of rice straw and rice stubble contributed to around 16 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions for 2008. On the other hand, incorporating stubble less than 30 days before crop establishment appeared to be responsible for the largest contribution of carbon emissions. However, it finds that the early incorporation of both stubble and straw into the soil is the most cost-effective way of disposing of rice straw as well as reduce carbon emissions.
“ The higher the farmer’s awareness of the environmental impacts of rice straw burning, the higher the likelihood that they would choose straw incorporation over straw burning,” the EEPSEA study said. “Awareness of environmental laws and regulations was also found to be a factor that increased the likelihood of a farmer choosing the environmental and cost-effective way.”
The study, however, said that further study on the technical, environmental and economic feasibility of using rice straw for power generation and bioethanol production in the Philippines should be looked into.
photos by IVAbano
See the full EEPSEA study here: http://www.eepsea.org/o-k2/view-item/id-448/Itemid-192/
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