By Ankita Paul, Darshnaben Mahida, Vikram Patil, Amit Srivastava, Pavan Yeggina, Deep Banerjee, Proloy Deb, and Anthony Fulford* (*Contact: a.fulford@cgiar.org)
The Krishna-Godavari delta of Andhra Pradesh is among Asia’s most productive rice landscapes, contributing to India’s annual 150-million-tonne harvest, 28% of global rice output, and 35% of global trade. Contemporarily, the region sits on the edge of fragile agricultural production and the compounding climate crisis. Rice monocropping dominates the region and is conventionally grown under continuously flooded conditions which drives methane (CH4) emission through anaerobic decomposition of organic matter, while misapplication of nitrogenous fertiliser releases nitrous oxide (N2O). Together, these emissions make rice cultivation one of the major agricultural sources of greenhouse gases (GHG). Unconstrained irrigation and excessive nitrogen fertilizer application in the Krishna-Godavari delta can intensify the emission of both GHGs.
However, because the hydrology of the delta remains poorly understood and region-specific CH4 and N2O measurements remain sparse, current evidence gaps limit robust emission accounting and the deployment of informed decision support systems. Without spatially coherent emission inventories and irrigation accounting, neither GHG mitigation targets nor evidence-driven water policies can be reliably designed. Climate-smart irrigation practices, such as Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), integrated with low-emission agronomic practices have the potential to lower the environmental impact of rice cultivation, although wider adoption will require robust field-based/ basin-scale evidence.
Exploring climate solutions: A collaborative approach
With this rationale, Andhra Pradesh’s Community Managed Natural Farming (APCNF) programme—engaging over 0.63 million farmers across six agro-climatic zones—offers an agroecologically-based response to the climate and water crisis embedded in its rice landscape. By replacing synthetic chemical fertilisers with natural fertilizers, APCNF directly optimizes the co-benefits of GHG emission reduction—particularly with respect to nitrous oxide—while AWD reduces both flood-irrigation dependency and prolonged anaerobic waterlogging. While Natural Farming has gained momentum across Andhra Pradesh, improving water management remains as a critical challenge to building resilient rice production systems.
Recognizing this opportunity, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), under the Carbon Offsetting Rice Emissions (CORE) Project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), collaborated with Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS) to demonstrate how AWD can complement Natural Farming. By integrating AWD, IRRI’s proven water-saving irrigation practice, into the APCNF programme, the partnership aimed to support farmers in producing rice with less water while maintaining productivity and strengthening climate resilience.
Alternate Wetting and Drying is a simple, yet an effective alternative irrigation practice developed by IRRI that reduces irrigation water while maintaining sufficient water for healthy crop growth. When integrated with Natural Farming practices that promote healthy soils and reduced dependence on synthetic chemical inputs, AWD offers the potential for synergistic benefits to further improve water-use efficiency and amplify reductions in CH4 emissions. However, AWD is not suitable for all rice-growing regions and seasons in Andhra Pradesh, especially when timely and assured irrigation are not possible. Therefore, to understand how this integrated approach performs in farmers’ fields, demonstrations were established in the deltaic regions of East and West Godavari. These crucial field-based demonstrations are helping farmers optimize the integration of AWD with Natural Farming.
Experiences across the delta: experiments and farmer voices
Observations from the field demonstrations reveal encouraging outcomes. On average, farmers practicing Natural Farming integrated with AWD irrigated their rice fields approximately once every seven days, compared to every two days under conventional chemical farming with continuous flooding. This substantial reduction in irrigation frequency represents significant potential for conserving water while reducing the labour and energy associated with irrigation. In addition, AWD-based Natural Farming reduced CH4 and N2O emissions by approximately 40% and 13% compared to conventional continuously flooded cultivation. Importantly, reducing irrigation did not come at the expense of crop performance. Across the demonstrations, rice grown under Natural Farming integrated with AWD recorded an average yield increase of ~14% in comparison to conventional chemical farming with continuous flooding. Improvements were also observed in the number of productive tillers and other crop performance indicators, suggesting that better water management can complement agroecological farming practices while sustaining productivity.
Although the demonstrations focused primarily on evaluating field performance under farmers’ conditions, the findings reinforce an important message: sustainable rice production does not necessarily require more water. Instead, timely irrigation based on crop water demand can help farmers use water more efficiently while maintaining healthy crop growth. Beyond the field-level results, the initiative highlights the value of strong partnerships in accelerating climate-resilient agriculture.
The CORE – project has been implemented through a consortium comprising IRRI, Olam Agri, UN Women and GIZ. IRRI contributed scientific expertise on AWD, while Olam Agri supported the project through in-kind contributions, including the provision of AWD tubes to farmers. UN Women oversaw the CORE gender component. GIZ provided overall coordination, fostering collaboration among the consortium and the implementation partner in Andhra Pradesh, among others RySS throughout the project. RySS leveraged its extensive network of Natural Farming practitioners to support implementation on the ground. By bringing together research, extension, gender and community participation, the collaboration created opportunities for knowledge exchange and the practical adaptation of climate-smart technologies to local conditions.
A participating male farmer from East Godavari shared, “by following the controlled irrigation (AWD), we realized the crops survive and thrive even with intermittent watering…this approach significantly reduced both our water usage and electricity consumption.”
The demonstrations carried out across six districts of Andhra Pradesh also underscore the importance of ensuring that climate-smart innovations are accessible to diverse farming communities. Empowering women and smallholder farmers with equitable decision-making and access to climate smart innovations is also a critical aspect of making climate-resilient farming systems inclusive. The active participation of women farmers across the programme illustrates how inclusive approaches can strengthen the adoption and scaling of sustainable agricultural practices (Figure 1).
A participating woman farmer from East Godavari shared, “Healthy soil and careful water management go hand in hand. By combining natural farming with controlled irrigation, we learned that rice could thrive while using less water.”
The integration of AWD with Natural Farming represents more than a technical intervention, it reflects a collaborative approach to building resilient and inclusive rice production systems that benefit farmers, conserve natural resources, and deliver climate-smart technologies (Figure 2). These promising results are showing that when AWD is paired with Natural Farming, even greater water savings and GHG emissions reductions can be achieved compared to when either approach is adopted as a standalone intervention. However, there is still a need to understand how the combination of AWD and Natural Farming modify water productivity resulting in water-savings, and how this translates across different regions. Continued collaboration, farmer learning, and evidence generation will be essential to scaling climate-smart innovations and supporting sustainable rice cultivation across India and beyond.
Acknowledgements
This work was undertaken under the Carbon Offsetting Rice Emissions (CORE) Project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). CORE was implemented through a consortium comprising GIZ, IRRI, UN Women and Olam Agri, with GIZ providing overall coordination among the consortium partners and facilitating collaboration with the implementation partner, Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS). Field implementation and farmer mobilisation were carried out in close collaboration with RySS under the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming (APCNF) programme. IRRI gratefully acknowledges the valuable contributions of RySS, its district teams, extension personnel and participating farmers, whose commitment made these demonstrations possible.
