Delegates at “Realizing the vision of low-emission rice across landscapes,” pose for a picture in Ha Noi, Viet Nam. Credit: FOLUR
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By Clare Murphy-McGreevey
If farmers are incentivized to adopt innovative approaches, methods of rice production can be transformed and emissions can be significantly reduced, according to experts attending “Realizing the vision of low-emission rice across landscapes,” a regional dialogue jointly hosted by the World Bank-led Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration Impact Program (FOLUR) and Viet Nam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
Rice is a major food security staple, providing 20 percent of calorie intake worldwide. However, the crop has a substantial impact on global warming due to emissions equal to 16 percent of all agricultural methane emitted.
The FOLUR Impact Program is a $345 million initiative supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) that seeks to transform the global food system by promoting sustainable, integrated landscapes and efficient commodity value chains. It consists of a global platform and 27 country projects targeting the production landscapes of eight commodities: livestock, cocoa, coffee, maize, palm oil, rice, soy, and wheat.
Rice is typically planted in flooded fields known as paddies. Water helps control weeds and pests but it also stops oxygen from entering the soil, producing methane-emitting bacteria.
By reducing flooding, implementing drainage systems, and adopting alternate wetting and drying techniques emissions can be reduced substantially. Other techniques that help curtail emissions include planting dry seeded rice, and deploying laser land leveling.
Delegates at the dialogue also discussed the benefits of introducing the use of satellites and mature technologies that can be implemented immediately and have already been tested.
Key topics and outcomes at the Regional Dialogue include:
- The importance of rice as a food security crop, accounting for 20% of the world’s calorie intake
- The significance of rice for jobs and livelihoods, with hundreds of millions employed across the rice value chain
- The relative mitigation potential for rice is significant at 36% - much higher than that of livestock
- Emerging definitions of low-emissions, low-carbon and sustainable rice and how these differ
- How current public policies and support, which can be lead to environmentally harmful impacts, will need to change in order to support the transition to sustainable rice production
- Actions are readily available and affordable that countries can implement now to reduce emissions produced by the global agri-food sector, including rice
- How standards and certification schemes can help guide sustainability efforts, offering helpful frameworks, without being prescriptive or burdensome
- Rewarding smallholder farmers for sustainable practices and raising incomes is essential to ensure they are at the heart of the transition
- Involving women farmers in the transition and taking collective action through farmers groups and more to make the rice sector inclusive
- Tackling political economy challenges and “repurposing” current incentive structures towards better outcomes e.g. paying farmers for healthy soils and more
- A potential area of further study and dialogue on the potential of carbon finance – including carbon markets and credits – as well as investments informed by environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles, has the capacity to spearhead change and drive real transformation, including modalities to make this workable, such as paying a carbon credits directly to farmers
More than 120 participants attended the dialogue, including 70 international delegates from FOLUR member countries, representatives from U.N. agencies, international organizations, civil society organizations, enterprises, experts, scientists, stakeholders, research and technical organizations. Additionally, 50 Vietnamese delegates from government ministries, departments, agencies, and local representatives and experts from the Red River Delta, Mekong River Delta, North Central, and Northern mountainous regions participated in the event.
The dialogue took place from September 9 to 12 in the capital Ha Noi and included three days of discussion and a daylong field trip to Thai Binh and Nam Dinh provinces to explore sustainable, low-emission rice production and value chains.
[Published on Sept. 25, 2024]
