Kyrgyzstan promotes construction of rice houses as an ecological alternative to concrete

At first glance, it looks like any other building. But Akmatbek Uraimov's new home in Kyrgyzstan is made of rice husk bricks. An ecological alternative to conventional materials in a country vulnerable to climate change and water scarcity.

Before opting for this unorthodox material, Uraimov had studied other options, but ultimately concluded that relatively inexpensive blocks made from rice husks were the best solution.

“In terms of insulation, cost, and construction, it turned out to be convenient,” explained the resident of Kyzyl-Kiya in southwestern Kyrgyzstan.

"People didn't know about it. Now they see it, they're interested, and they call," he told AFP.

Nursultan Taabaldyev is one of the pioneers of this technology in Central Asia, considered an environmentally friendly alternative to concrete, which consumes a lot of water.

In a workshop in his home region of Batken, the air was thick with rice dust from the husks of the grain, which are normally discarded or burned.

"They're made with 60 percent rice husk. The rest is clay, cement, and a chemical-free glue," Taabaldyev explained, as workers wearing masks pressed the bricks before drying them and helped customers load the finished blocks onto trucks.

Once dry, they are as strong as cement thanks to the silica naturally present inside the shells.

“This idea came to me when I was a child, while I was doing carpentry with my father,” he told AFP.

The 27-year-old man built “300 houses” in five years, first with sawdust and then with rice.

When Taabaldyev began his project, there was little research into this technology.

However, the landscape began to change. Several initial studies from countries such as China, India, and Spain highlighted the potential economic and environmental benefits of using rice bricks in construction.

Their main advantage is that they require less cement, which is responsible for approximately 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions, according to 2023 data from the World Economic Forum.

A resident of a mountainous, arid region, Ykhval Boriyeva also opted for rice bricks, appreciating their insulating qualities.

Your home stays “warm in winter and cool in spring” thanks to the low thermal conductivity of this cereal.

"We save coal. The walls retain heat and cold well," he said.

The material is abundant in the southwestern Batken region, where one-third of the country's rice harvest is produced.

"Rice residue is thrown into the fields, burns slowly, harms the environment, and is not used as fertilizer. That's why we decided to recycle it," Taabaldyev noted.

The problem of managing rice residues is even more serious in large global producers such as India.

There, “31.4 million tons of rice husks fill landfills and cause environmental problems,” according to a report published in late 2024 by Springer Nature.

“Farmers are happy that we remove rice residue because its accumulation creates a fire risk” in barns if ventilation is inadequate, the Kyrgyz pioneer added.

However, this fire risk would not affect buildings constructed with rice.

“There is no particular danger,” said a regional official from the Asian country’s Ministry of Emergency Situations.

bk/abo/gde-mmp/jc/fg/mmy/zm/dd/aa