RiceStraw

Rice straw is produced as a byproduct of rice production at harvest. Rice straw is removed with the rice grains during harvest and it ends up being piled or spread out in the field depending if it was harvested manually or using machines. Ratio of straw to paddy ranges from 0.7-1.4 depending on the variety and growth. Globally, roughly 800 to 1,000 million tons per year of rice straw is produced, with about 600 to 800 million tons per year produced in Asia. This continues to rapidly increase due to shorter turnaround time required for intensified rice cropping. The introduction of game-changing combine harvesters which solves the high labor cost associated with manual straw collection addresses only half the battle. Straw incorporation in soil for fertilization in intensive systems is also not possible with two to three crops per year because the turnaround time is too short for decomposition, resulting to poor soil fertilization properties which ultimately hinders crop establishment.