Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 7635 IREC Farmers' Newsletter No. 195 ­ – Rice R&D 2016 Wendy Quayle Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Rural and Regional Futures Deakin University, Griffith, NSW I N a good season with high irrigation water availability, over one million tonnes of rice straw may be produced in southern New South Wales. The vast majority of rice growers currently remove straw immediately after harvest by burning, allowing time to get a winter wheat or canola crop sown and making use of subsoil moisture that remains from the preceding rice crop. Generally however, burning is considered undesirable as a long-term solution, as it is considered to not only cause loss of soil nutrients, carbon and possibly beneficial soil organisms but it also creates air pollution with possible risks to human health. It is possible that government regulations may be introduced to control burning if incidents of smoke affecting individuals or local communities are reported to the NSW EPA. It is critical that growers do not lose the flexibility that burning offers in their farm management. Fact sheets and a web-based, weather-related tool developed by the Bureau of Meteorology are available that may assist growers to burn responsibly and identify the most suitable weather conditions for burning so that smoke is dispersed quickly and away from residential areas (www.rga.org.au/f.ashx/Stubble- factsheet.pdf). Nevertheless, at times, even responsible burning can generate plumes of unsightly smoke and particulates in the atmosphere, and the negative effects of burning from both agronomic and environmental aspects continue to raise issues for rice growers, the industry and the community. Consequently, there is a need for the rice industry to explore alternative ways of managing rice Australian rice crops are some of the highest yielding in the world (approximately 10.5 t/ha) and typically they produce the same mass or more of straw. QUICK TAKE l  Alternatives for burning rice stubble include removing it from the paddock for use as bioenergy, high value chemicals, niche silica products, plastics and building materials, as well as organic soil amendments and mulches. l  Transport of straw to a centralised bioenergy, bio- refinery or processing facility is currently cost prohibitive unless high value-adding is possible. l  A cross-sectoral approach is required whereby a number of different industries (e.g. wine, paper, cotton) may supply a bio-refinery type facility l  Domestic markets for garden mulch products offer high mark-ups that can overcome handling and transport costs. l Most rice growers currently burn rice straw immediately after harvest to sow a winter wheat or canola crop and make use of subsoil moisture that remains after rice. Photo: MALCOLM TAYLOR ALTERNATIVE MANAGEMENT OF RICE STRAW