Activity data on crop management define uncertainty of CH4 and N2O emission estimates from rice: A case study of Vietnam

Butterbach-Bahl, K., Kraus, D., Kiese, R., Mai, V.T., Nguyen, T., Sander, B.O., Wassmann, R. and Werner, C. 2022. Activity data on crop management define uncertainty of CH4 and N2O emission estimates from rice: A case study of Vietnam. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science https://doi.org/10.1002/jpln.202200382

Globally, rice systems are a major source of atmospheric CH4 and for major rice-producing countries, such as Vietnam, CH4 as well as N2O emissions from agricultural land used for rice production may represent about one-fourth of total national anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, national-scale estimates of GHG emissions from rice systems are uncertain with regard to its magnitude, spatial distribution, and seasonality. Our study shows that Tier 3 approaches, that is, process-oriented model approaches combined with GIS databases, for estimating national-scale GHG emissions from rice systems are ready to be applied at national scale. Generally, this approach is powerful as it allows to identify regions with elevated emissions, thereby accounting not only for CH4, but as well for N2O emissions. However, our study also shows that specifically better information on land management is required to narrowing uncertainties.