UN group, partners vow to improve rice farming practices

MANILA, Philippines - The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has teamed up with partners in an initiative to ensure that rice is produced in ways that are environment-friendly while boosting yields for both commercial and subsistence farmers.

UNEP initiated the Sustainable Rice Platform along with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Louis Dreyfus Commodities and Kellogg Co. to promote the use of technologies and improve rice farming practices for better harvest.

It will also facilitate safer working conditions and higher incomes for rice farmers to alleviate poverty and enhance food security.

At the inaugural meeting of the Platform at IRRI’s headquarters in the Philippines last week, government representatives from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar, Asia-based companies and non-government organizations (NGOs) expressed their support to the program.

“The Sustainable Rice Platform provides opportunities for promoting resource use efficiency and sustainable trade flows throughout the value chain of the global rice sector and deliver real results to the lives of rice farmers,” said James Lomax, the UNEP Program Officer for Agriculture and Food.

Rice, one of the world’s major food crops, is mostly grown by hundreds of thousands of poor farmers. Moreover, 90 percent of rice is grown in developing countries in Asia where access to knowledge and support is limited.

The Platform will encourage national agricultural departments to explore and test management practices to make them relevant and to promote them to rice farmers. NGOs and companies will assist in developing sustainability criteria to safeguard or improve environmental health.