AI Insight
Dutch farmers are experimentally growing rice in peatland fields between Amsterdam and The Hague as a potential solution to land subsidence. The peatlands have been sinking due to drainage for traditional agriculture, which causes peat oxidation and carbon release. Rice cultivation requires flooded fields, which could keep peatlands wet and prevent further subsidence while providing an economically viable crop.
Why it matters
This approach could address the critical problem of peatland degradation in the Netherlands, where subsidence threatens infrastructure and releases significant amounts of stored carbon into the atmosphere. If successful, wet rice farming could offer a sustainable alternative to current agricultural practices that require draining these vulnerable soils.
Understand the Science
In a soggy field between Amsterdam and The Hague, farmer Sander Roeleveld plows a small white combine harvester into his crops, gathering a grain never before harvested in the Netherlands: rice.
Source: Rice work: Dutch test new crop to save sinking peatlands