Sustainable rice cultivation: Good for farmers, consumers, and planet
Poor cultivation practices of rice farmers contribute to climate change, as they generate large amounts of greenhouse gases: about 10% of global methane emissions come from rice paddies.
In Uganda, rice is an important staple food for many people, and the demand is rising sharply. Smallholder farmers are the backbone of the local rice production. But is rice cultivation sustainable? Poor cultivation practices of rice farmers contribute to climate change, as they generate large amounts of greenhouse gases: about 10% of global methane emissions come from rice paddies. How can production be boosted to meet the growing demand, while protecting the environment?
The Sustainable Rice Platform Standard as the solution
The Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) is a global multi-stakeholder partnership that wants to make rice farming more sustainable, from an economic, social and environmental perspective. Its Standard i.e. the SRP Standard for sustainable rice cultivation serves as a working definition for sustainable rice production and enables benchmarking and objective comparison of the sustainability of any rice system based on 41 requirements.
The SRP Standard covers the areas of farm management, pre-planting, water use, nutrient management, pest management, post-harvest, health & safety, and labour rights. It uses a scoring system that allows for a stepwise compliance to encourage and reward progress in improving agricultural practices.
It is not a pass-fail standard. If a farmer scores at least 90 points and meets all the essential requirements, they can claim they produce ‘Sustainably cultivated rice' and ‘Working towards sustainable rice cultivation' can be used as a claim for farmers that score lower and only meet some essential requirements. CLICKHERE FOR MORE ON THIS STORY