December 20, 2024

Global Sustainable Rice Conference 2024 Calls for Sector Transformation to Impact Climate Change

Developments in tech, finance & regulation are helping upscale adoption of low-carbon sustainable rice, underpinned by the Sustainable Rice Platform Standard.

• SRP Standard for Sustainable Rice Cultivation supports sustainable rice practices in Thailand, with the draft Version 3.0 now open for public consultation.
• SRP launches RiceTrace, a digital platform to streamline operations and ensure compliance with sustainable rice standards.
• SRP is developing the Low-Carbon Assurance Module to measure and verify greenhouse gas reductions in sustainable rice cultivation, in partnership with key stakeholders.

Bangkok, 20 December 2024 – “Our challenge as a sector is to scale sustainable rice production as well as stimulate demand, in order to achieve our shared global environmental and social goals,” stated Inge Jacobs, Global Sustainable Sourcing Lead at Mars Food & Nutrition, during the 3^rd Global Sustainable Rice Conference & Exhibition, held recently in Bangkok.

Held on 26-27 November at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC) in Bangkok, the event brought together over 240 experts from around the world to discuss how ongoing transformation of the global rice sector can drive environmental sustainability, economic resilience, and social equity. Speakers from UN agencies, governments, private sector, research and civil society shared discussed their experiences and challenges in implementing the Sustainable Rice Platform Standard for Sustainable Rice Cultivation, the world’s first voluntary sustainability standard for rice, designed to incentivize farmers, from smallholders to large producers, to adopt proven climate-smart and sustainable best practices, including innovative opportunities for scaling to achieve sector transformation.

The event highlighted the wide range of initiatives transforming the sustainable rice industry – showcasing technology innovations for farmers, new local funding & investment tools, collaborative solutions to de-carbonize rice across markets – all while empowering farmers to achieve low emission outcomes that can deliver economic benefits.

Hosted by the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP), the conference discussed all of these transformation drivers – including emerging regulatory requirements, market shifts, corporate sustainability reporting and financial instruments as drivers of sustainable rice sector growth.

Addressing the conference during the Opening Ceremony, Kulsiri Klunnuraksa, Director of the Rice Research and Development Division at the Thai Rice Department, stressed the importance of the rice sector not only as a stable food, but also as the heart of Thailand’s culture, economy, and way of life. “Rice has been an integral part of Thai society for centuries, supporting livelihoods of millions of farm families, sustaining our rural communities, and of course is at the core of Thailand’s cuisine and our agricultural exports,” said Ms Kulsiri.

“The Thailand Rice Department is committed to SRP and we are proud to be leading several large-scale projects aimed at promoting sustainable rice farming across Thailand. Among these projects is one funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), implemented in collaboration with UNEP, GIZ and SRP. Over the next four years the project will train approximately 45,000 rice farmers to adopt the SRP Standard.”

“Fostering collaborative pathways to incentivize wide-scale adoption of low-carbon, sustainable best practices is SRP’s overarching goal,” Dr. Wyn Ellis, SRP Executive Director commented during the event’s opening ceremony.

“Rice stands at the intersection of the twin global challenges of sustainable food systems and climate change action. SRP aims at a holistic approach that links carbon action to the needs of small farmers through an integrated sustainability framework that encompasses smallholder livelihoods, resource efficiency, biodiversity, workers’ rights and women’s empowerment in rice value chains.”

In his keynote address to the conference, Chris Brett, Lead Agribusiness Specialist at the World Bank Group congratulated SRP on its progress in highlighting the need for global action and reported on the increasing emphasis on climate finance for the rice sector within the global development community.

“We continue to work to leverage climate finance and carbon markets to accelerate a transitioning of the rice sector toward low-emission practices,” he said.

“We are making significant progress in the development of financing tools & innovations that further encourage wide-scale adoption of low-emission technologies, while generating economic benefits for smallholders. However, much higher levels of public funding and private investment will be critical to realize these goals.”

In her keynote, Dr. Yvonne Pinto, Director General at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), a founding member of SRP, noted that SRP stands at an important moment in the context of key global drivers: “The global market for sustainable rice is developing due to the interplay of food security needs, climate change challenges, economic incentives for farmers, consumer preferences for sustainability, and ongoing investment in agricultural innovation.” she said.

“We see great opportunities for large-scale mitigation and sequestration through sustainable rice practices, and creation of pathways to gigaton-scale carbon reductions, all while delivering significant economic and social benefits for farmers, the environment and society.”

Speakers discussed how SRP members and partners around the world are championing sustainable rice, showcasing country-level case studies and panel discussions from around the world. The 2-day event also featured the launch of SRP’s new RiceTrace digital traceability platform, designed to streamline operations and ensure compliance with SRP Standards, the release of the draft Version 3.0 of the SRP Standard for Sustainable Rice Cultivation for public consultation and a progress update on the development of the SRP Low Carbon Assurance Module, in partnership with key stakeholders. This module aims to measure and verify greenhouse gas reductions in sustainable rice cultivation. Additionally, two new IFC reports were launched, exploring market and financing opportunities for sustainable rice and benchmarking SRP against global best practices.

Photos and presentations from the event are available here.

The 3rd Global Sustainable Rice Conference & Exhibition was proudly supported by sponsors Olam Agri and String Bio, as well as media partner SSR Rice News.

About the Sustainable Rice Platform

The Sustainable Rice Platform e.V. (SRP) is a global multi‐stakeholder alliance comprising over 100 institutional members from the public, private, research, civil society and the financial sector. SRP works with its members and partners towards transforming the global rice sector by improving smallholder livelihoods, reducing the social, environmental and climate footprint of rice production, and by offering the global rice market an assured supply of sustainably produced rice.

SRP promotes resource-use efficiency and climate change resilience in rice systems (both on-farm and throughout value chains) and pursues voluntary market transformation initiatives by developing sustainable production standards, indicators, incentive mechanisms, and outreach mechanisms to boost wide-scale adoption of climate-smart, sustainable best practices among small farmers.

For more information on the Sustainable Rice Platform contact info@sustainablerice.org or visit www.sustainablerice.org

Contact:
Roong Tepkaew, SRP Communications and Membership Manager
Email: roong.tepkaew@sustainablerice.org