But the same flooded soils that help rice thrive also create ideal conditions for microbes that release climate-warming gases.Farmers have ways to reduce their rice crops’ emissions without lowering their yields. If every grower used the best currently available “climate-smart” options, we found that global rice emissions could be reduced by about 10% by midcentury. However, greater reductions are needed to slow climate change, which would require developing additional, more effective strategies.Rice emissions have risen for two reasons: the expansion of rice cultivation area and the intensification of management practices.Just over half of the global increase is from the expansion of rice-growing areas. In Africa, for example, the rice-growing area has roughly doubled since the 1960s, helping drive a twofold rise in methane emissions in the region.At the same time, rice farmers are using more fertilizers and organic amendments, such as straw and manure, planting more productive rice varieties and growing the plants closer together. The result is more rice but also more greenhouse gas emissions.After rice is harvested, one technique for improving soil fertility is to plow the dried rice stalks back into the soil. But this also increases methane emissions. Jingting Zhang