Giving Compass' Take:

• Eco-Business shares the innovative model for the Sustainable Rice Platform, an exponentially growing initiative that reduces rice farming's carbon footprint.

• How can the Sustainable Rice Platform grown so significantly? What are they doing that other initiatives should replicate? Are you prepared to support the development of future sustainability approaches?

• Learn about more innovative ways to reduce our global carbon footprint.


Rice production presents a conundrum in a world facing a climate crisis. It is a staple food for much of the world’s population, and production will need to nearly double by 2050 to meet demand. But it is also the most polluting grain, and is said to be responsible for 2.5 per cent of man-made global warming. Growing the crop, which has traditionally been done in flooded fields, results in emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane.

In a bid to grow more rice sustainably, UN Environment and the International Rice Research Institute co-convened the SRP in 2011. Its 16 founding members included Olam, Mars and German development agency GIZ.

In 2015, SRP rolled out the Standard for Sustainable Rice Cultivation and its first set of performance indicators, and began a pilot project with 71 farmers in Ubon Ratchathani.

Since then, SRP pilot projects have been successful in reducing the resource footprint of rice production—20 per cent less water and 50 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions, on average—and have raised farmers’ incomes by about 10 per cent.

The impact of these projects under the SRP will be monitored through the metrics of AtSource, Olam’s business-to-business sustainable sourcing platform. This transparency will allow rice brands and manufacturers to track the social and environmental footprint of their rice from the field, right up to their door, via the digital dashboard. In turn, they can better engage consumers on the story behind their rice products and, hopefully, drive more sustainable buying decisions, she said.

Read the full article about the sustainable rice platform at Eco-Business.