Life cycle assessment of conventional and low carbon rice production system in Victoria, Laguna, Philippines.

Abstract

With increasing rice production in the country, a major concern in rice production is the management of waste products such as rice straw. One of the country's traditional practices of rice straw management is soil incorporation, where the rice straw ends up being spread out, buried, and degraded in the field. However, this activity releases significant greenhouse gas emissions, which is a threat to the environment. One way to avoid the negative impacts of conventional rice straw management is to utilize the rice straw produced in the rice field and use it as feedstock for biogas digester and cow manure for biogas production. Biogas produced in this system will be used as an alternative energy source for rice grain drying. A low-carbon rice production system that utilizes the rice straw as feedstock for biogas production was compared to the conventional rice production system through a life cycle assessment to assess the system's environmental impact. The conventional rice production system that uses a flatbed drying system for rice grain drying has a total carbon footprint of 21,557.84 kg CO2 e ha-1. Using low-carbon technology in the system leads to a reduction of 31.89%, resulting in a lower carbon footprint of 14,682 kg CO₂ e ha^-1. The conventional rice production system that uses a recirculating vertical bin drying system for rice grain drying has a total carbon footprint of 21,506.86 kg CO₂ e ha^-1. With low carbon technology, the carbon footprint was calculated at 14,357.18 kg CO₂ e ha^-1 resulting in a reduction of 33.24% from conventional rice production practices.