Ramanjaneyulu explains that agriculture is a significant contributor to GHG emissions, particularly nitrous oxide (mostly due to volatilisation loss from nitrogenous fertilisers) and methane (mostly due to water stagnating in paddy fields and dams, cattle enteric fermentation and biomass decomposition). “End-of-pipe solutions won’t work unless we cut down at the source, and instead continue to push agriculture that is high water, high fertiliser and high energy dependent,” says the agriculture scientist, citing the example of Telangana, where in just seven years, the area under paddy cultivation has increased by over 200 per cent, replacing groundnut, sesame, safflower etc. Last year, the area under paddy in the state was one crore acre. Approximate estimates show annual emissions from Telangana paddy fields alone would be 10 crore tonnes, which is equivalent to emissions from around 21.8 million passenger cars over a year. India is estimated to have about 300 million passenger cars, making Telangana paddy emissions a shade under a tenth of pan-India vehicular emissions.