Unlocking Sustainable Rice Cultivation: A New Era for Regenerative Agriculture
This Earth month, Arva is excited to announce a critical breakthrough in agricultural emissions reductions: the successful external validation of our methane quantification model for U.S. rice systems under Verra’s VM0042 and VMD0053 methodologies. This marks a significant step forward in measuring—and scaling—smarter, more resilient farming practices in one of the world’s most methane-intensive crops.
Methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas—more than 28 times stronger than carbon dioxide over a 100-year period. Reducing methane from agricultural systems offers effective strategies to support cleaner air, healthier ecosystems, and more sustainable food production.
Methane from flooded rice fields accounts for up to 10 million tonnes of CO₂e annually in the U.S. alone—making rice a powerful, yet largely untapped, lever in the drive toward agricultural decarbonization. Until now, measuring those emissions accurately and at scale has been a challenge.
Arva’s rice model, developed by Dr. Lacey Pyle, Dr. Shinichi Asao, and Dr. Eric King, allows for quantified reductions in methane emissions from improved water management techniques such as alternate wetting and drying (AWD), delayed flooding, and winter fallow management. Using the DayCent process model, validated against peer-reviewed field data across major rice-growing states, Arva’s approach meets the highest standards for scientific rigor and environmental claims integrity. The result: a robust, scalable tool for unlocking carbon credit and Scope 3 reduction opportunities in rice value chains.
Why it matters:
🌾 Rice is a major emissions reduction opportunity: Methane emissions per acre from flooded rice can be up to 6x higher than other major crops, such as wheat or corn.
💧 Practice change = results: Strategic irrigation practices can reduce methane by 40% or more, while also conserving water and supporting biodiversity.
🌱 Our model has received Independent Modeling Expert approval: This has created new opportunities for carbon credit generation, environmental asset tracking, and corporate decarbonization.
Arva is delivering real impact. In 2024 alone, we:
- Engaged 1,200+ farmers across 1.8M+ acres
- Enabled $40M+ in payments for regenerative practices
- Quantified over 1.4M tonnes of CO₂e reductions and removals
- Saved 47B+ gallons of water through improved management
- Supported 76,000+ acres of waterfowl habitat
- Delivered a 400% increase in farmer participation and 1,200% increase in acre enrollment in rice-focused carbon programs between Year 1 and Year 2
🌍 This Earth Day, let’s take action.
This is more than just modeling. It’s a movement to make regenerative agriculture a cornerstone of resilient food systems and to ensure that farmers are rewarded for the environmental solutions they implement. Arva’s impact extends beyond rice. We design scope 3 reduction programs for 11 major commodities/ingredients in 8 countries. And we are just getting started.
Are you a sustainability or procurement leader looking to reduce field-level emissions? Or a company ready to support regenerative sourcing?
