Hyderabad: Validating the facts established by ‘Telangana Today’ on the alleged emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) through paddy cultivation in the State, officials of Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) said the issue was being blown out of proportion without even considering other factors that were favourable to the atmosphere. They also questioned the research calculations which concluded that the State was producing GHG equivalent to 2.17 crore vehicles and stated that it could be less than 2.5 lakh vehicles.
In a statement released by PJTSAU, the university Vice-Chancellor V Praveen Rao stated that the reports published by a national English newspaper and a vernacular daily on GHG emissions based on a research of Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA), have certain flaws as the GHG emissions were shown on a higher side. Besides highlighting the misreporting of facts and contradictions in calculating the emissions as was mentioned by ‘Telangana Today’, the authorities felt that most of the calculations in the research itself seem to be faulty.
“For instance, the emissions from passenger vehicle on an average is 120 gm/km. Taking an average travel by each vehicle as 200 km a month, it is 24 kg per month and 288 kg per year. Even by taking the conservative estimate of emissions from each passenger vehicle as 250 kg a year, the total number of vehicles that produce CO2 equivalent to paddy fields from Telangana should be 2.5 lakh. However, the number of vehicles shown as 2.17 crore,” the release stated.
Further, the Vice-Chancellor felt that certain factors were not taken into consideration while calculating the total emissions and stated that the errors in the emissions methodology followed seems to be not appropriate. “The rice plant also captures CO2 from the atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis. It adds organic carbon to the soil through the decomposition of biomass. Also, the algal blooms in paddy fields also capture a certain amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” he said, adding that long time ponding of water in paddy cultivation also contributes to groundwater recharge, which is an ecosystem service in paddy cultivation, which was also not considered.
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