Category-leading rice brand Tilda has introduced alternate wetting and drying (AWD) to more than 3,000 farms across northern India.
Billed as a “major milestone” in the supplier’s sustainability strategy, the breakthrough means every farmer from the region involved in Tilda’s supply chain is using a growing method proven to reduce the methane emissions associated with rice farming.
In conventional rice farming, fields are kept permanently flooded, which requires vast amounts of water and creates the oxygen-free conditions that release methane as rice plants grow.
AWD is a water-saving irrigation technique developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). Instead of continuous flooding, fields are allowed to dry before being re-flooded. The farmer inserts a perforated tube into the soil, which allows them to monitor when the water has dropped to a specific depth.
According to Tilda, AWD slashes the methane emissions associated with rice growing by as much as 45%, while also saving energy used for irrigation.
Tilda’s AWD programme launched in 2021 and has since scaled dramatically to include over 3,240 farms covering 10,900 hectares today.
Alongside reducing methane emissions, Tilda’s 2023-2024 Impact Report showed AWD reduced average carbon footprints to 766kg CO2e per tonne of rice, compared with 1,177kg for traditional rice farming.
Plus, it saved more than 22 billion litres of water annually and used 18.8% less fertiliser per hectare and 24.3% less per tonne of rice.
It also achieved yield gains of nearly 6% and farm income increases of 7% per hectare.
“We are immensely proud of the progress the farmers we work closely with are making. AWD has already transformed the climate and economic footprint of basmati farming,” said Tilda UK MD Jean-Philippe Laborde.
“Sustainability is about continuous improvement, and this milestone shows what can be achieved when business, science and farmers work together.”
A new challenge
However, scientists have identified another challenge facing the rice industry: nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas almost 300 times more damaging to the climate than carbon dioxide.
The drier soils associated with AWD expose nitrogen fertilisers to the air, stimulating nitrous oxide release and offsetting an estimated 10%-15% of AWD’s methane reduction benefits.
To address this, Tilda and academic partners are now testing biofertilisers containing beneficial arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi.
Early comparisons between fields treated with locally available mycorrhizae products applied alongside urea and those using synthetic fertilisers alone have shown stronger root growth and improved plant performance. In one case, a farmer reported yield gain of up to 20%.
While these trials still involved synthetic fertiliser use, Tilda will continue the research next year to investigate whether synthetic inputs can be progressively reduced or replaced with biofertilisers, while carefully assessing their overall sustainability.
“These early results are extremely encouraging,” said Dr Emily Servante, postdoctoral research associate at the University of Cambridge Crop Science Centre and Tilda’s lead scientific partner.
“We’ve confirmed that AM fungi naturally associate with pusa basmati rice, and that biofertilisers can enhance root development and crop vigour.
“While we haven’t yet shown a reduction in fertiliser inputs, the positive crop response makes this a very exciting avenue to explore.
“Our next step is to quantify these benefits at scale, investigate whether fertiliser use can be reduced, and ensure any inputs are truly sustainable.”
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