Evaluation of Methane Emissions with Water Regime before the Cultivation Period in Paddy Fields

Anaerobic decomposition of organic material in flooded rice fields produces methane, which escapes to the atmosphere primarily by transport through the rice plants. The annual amount of $CH_4$ emitted from a given area of rice is a function of the number and duration of crops grown, water regimes before and during cultivation period, and organic and inorganic soil amendments. Soil type, temperature, and rice cultivar also affect $CH_4$ emissions. The field experiment was conducted for three years to develop methane emission factor for water regime before the cultivation period from the rice fields. It was treated with three different water regimes prior to rice cultivation, namely: non-flooded pre-season < 180 days, non-flooded pre-season > 180 days, flooded per-season in which the minimum flooding interval is set to 30 days. Methane emission increased with days after transplanting and soil redox potential (Eh) decreased rapidly after flooding during the rice cultivation. The average methane emission fluxes were $5.47kg\;CH_4\;ha^{-1}day^{-1}$in flooded pre-season > 30 days, 5.04 in non-flooded pre-season < 180 days and 4.62 in non-flooded pre-season > 180. Methane emission flux was highly correlated with soil temperature and soil Eh. Rice yields showed no difference among treatments with water regime before the cultivation period.