With a ban on burning, incorporating rice straw into soil may become disposal option for growers

Abstract

The traditional burning of rice straw, after harvesting rice, is being phased out in California's Sacramento Valley under a 1991 state law, and rice growers are faced with seeking other ways of disposal. One option, incorporating rice straw into the soll, will require farmers to carefully evaluate the methods available to them, given their equipment holdings. In general, growers will incur much higher costs to incorporate rice straw, compared with burning it.