March 25, 2016
National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences (NIAES)

ANNOUNCEMENT: Release of “Guidelines for Measuring Methane (CH₄) and Nitrous Oxide (N₂O) Emissions from Rice Paddies by a Manually Operated Closed Chamber Method”

I. Summary

The National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences (NIAES) produced the Guidelines on the methods to measure emissions of greenhouse gases, methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O), from rice paddy fields, in cooperation with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). The document was released on the NIAES website, and linked to the website of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases^*1 as a product that implements the action plan of the Paddy Rice Research Group.

The Guidelines are expected to be utilized internationally as standardized measurement methods that can be implemented as a measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) ^*2 scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from rice paddy fields.

II. Structure of the document

(a)  The Guidelines consist of “Recommendations”, “Evolving issues”, “Chapters”, and “References”.

(b)  “Recommendations” provides a list of minimum requirements and recommendations for each “Chapter” for a quick and easy application and understanding of the methods

(c)  “Evolving issues” describe the current disparities in measurement protocols which have not been resolved due to a lack of consensus among the scientists. These issues may be tackled step-by-step using new scientific knowledge in the future.

(d)  “Chapters” constitute the main body of the Guidelines consisting of “Introduction”, “Experimental design”, “Chamber design”, “Gas sampling”, “Gas analysis”, “Data processing” and “Auxiliary measurements” describing required “GHGs measuring know-how” and their scientific basis.

III. Additional information for the document

(a)  The document is ready to be downloaded at both NIAES website (http://www.naro.affrc.go.jp/archive/niaes/techdoc/manual_e.html) and GRA website (http://globalresearchalliance.org/research/paddy-rice/).

(b)  The Guidelines were commissioned by the Secretariat of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Council of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan through the international research project “Technology development for circulatory food production systems responsive to climate change (Development of mitigation option for greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural lands in Asia)” (known as the MIRSA-2 project) to support the goals and objectives of the Paddy Rice Research Group of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (PRRG-GRA).

IV. Glossary

^*1 Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA): An international collaborative network focusing on research, development and extension of technologies and practices that will help deliver ways to grow more food without increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Four Research Groups, paddy rice, livestock, crop, and integrative, have been set up to address the work for respective areas.

^*2 Measurement, reporting and verification (MRV): A series of processes to quantify greenhouse gas emissions and their change over time. Climate change mitigation actions shall be implemented in a “measurable, reportable and verifiable” manner. The term MRV originally came from the Bali Action Plan that was adopted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2007.