Rice could be the answer to decrease greenhouse gases
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Transcript of Rice could be the answer to decrease greenhouse gases
www.worldweatheronline.com
Rice could be the answer to decrease greenhouse gases
www.worldweatheronline.com
Everyone is always talking about ways to reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to prevent further climate change.Methane is not normally mentioned despite it being a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.However scientists have revealed a new genetically modified rice plant that reduces emissions of methane.
What’s this about?
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How does it differ?
The new rice differs from normal rice by only one gene (stolen from barley) but it produces less methane and yields 43 percent more grain per plant.
Chuanxin Sun of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences says, ‘For three years of field trials it worked very well. It was especially effective during the summer, when it cut methane emissions to 0.3%, compared to 10% of the control rice plants’ emissions.’
‘The new rice reduced emissions less dramatically in autumn, because of lower temperatures, but still cut methane emissions in half.’
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How does it fight Greenhouse gas?
The gene inserted into the rice forces the rice plant to store more carbon, in the form of starch, in its stems and grains, and less in its roots.
The scientists believe that since there is less carbon in the roots, less can leak into the soil. Therefore the microbes in the soil have less carbon to convert into methane.
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What is there left to do?
• Larger scale trials need to be performed and more precise measurements of exact methane emissions and yield of the genetically modified rice need to be calculated.
• Chuanxin Sun has confirmed the next step is to use traditional breeding to make a rice variety that’s ‘basically the same scientifically’ as the genetically modified rice, including the same gene, in order to avoid any GMO issues.
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When will it be grown on a large scale?
The rice is about 10 to 20 years away from being ready for farmers to start growing.
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Rice could be the answer to decrease greenhouse gases
