Rice is the daily staple for more than 3.5 billion people globally and it provides livelihoods for over 1 billion people. It is also one of the most polluting crops on the planet with greenhouse gas emissions equal to the entire global aviation sector. In addition, every year millions of tonnes of rice straws produced every year are burned in paddy fields, creating extreme air pollution locally and affecting the health of millions.
Rice also uses between 30% and 40% of the world’s irrigation water for production, according to the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP). Southeast Asian rice farmers are among the world’s most vulnerable to climate change impacts such as rising sea levels, salinity, temperature rise, drought and flooding.
With these challenges in mind, we have set out strategic goals based on our vision for a world where human choices ensure a sustainable future and guiding principles in 2020-2025 Strategy. We focus on promoting better land management that benefits people, nature and the climate. We have identified the rice sector as a key strategic focus area due to the massive sustainability issues and the huge potential for creating positive changes
We are the first Verification Body to receive a licence under the new verification scheme, the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) to verify farms across the world.
The Sustainable Rice Platform Standard and Assurance Scheme verify rice farming and handle a broad range of sustainability issues including critical areas related to greenhouse gas emission and air pollution. The standard and assurance scheme help increase global supply of rice, improve livelihoods of rice producers and reduce environmental impact of rice production.
The Standard offers a broadly-agreed working definition of sustainable best practice, and provides a scientific basis to offer supply chain actors a robust, cost-effective and transparent assurance scheme. It is suitable for individual farmers, smallholder farmer groups, as well as larger farms, and focus on ensuring relevance, practicality and impact, especially for smallholder farmers in developing countries.
If you are interested to find out more about SRP verification or to receive a quote...