Using tropical paddy as the model ecosystem, the focus of research by Prof. Adhya is on sustainable management of resource-poor tropical soils to maintain high productivity with minimum environmental impact. Dr. Adhya initiated field-level research on methane and nitrous oxide emission from tropical Indian paddy and identified strong mitigation options with additional input to Carbon sequestration, biogeochemistry, and global change. He has contributed to India's first NATCOM on GHG and was invited to the review panel for the IPCC-2012 database and methodologies (2013) on GHGs by WMO/UNEP.