- Nine varieties of rice are being trialled in the Cambridgeshire Fens, including risotto, basmati and sushi.
- Scientists and farmers are exploring the best ways to tackle climate change, food security and nature recovery.
- From risotto to sushi, UK-produced rice could become a staple in our diets in the future.
Trials of growing rice and other food and bioenergy crops in rewetted peat soils in the Cambridgeshire Fens, as part of AgZero+, aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from peatlands that have been degraded due to agricultural use while maintaining food production and farmers’ livelihoods.
The Cambridgeshire Fens produce crops worth around £1.2 billion per year and account for a third of our fresh vegetables. However, this has required draining these wetlands, resulting in the loss of up to 12mm of peat every year, thereby releasing carbon that has been built up and stored in these wetland soils over thousands of years. The crops grown on them therefore can have among the highest greenhouse gas emissions per calorie in the world.