“The SRP Standard on Sustainable Rice Cultivation can be regarded as the world’s first sustainability standard for rice.”
As part of its efforts to strengthen Southeast Asia’s rice sector, BRIA has facilitated various interventions in collaboration with different stakeholders. Beyond the project implementation, the BRIA Regional Secretariat vigorously engages in various rice forums which can support the project in achieving its objective of improving the livelihoods of smallholder rice farmers.
The Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) is one of the most prominent of these forums, of which GIZ-BRIA is also a member. With a mission to promote resource efficiency and sustainability in the global rice sector, SRP aims to offer the global rice supply sector a proven set of instruments to facilitate wide-scale adoption of sustainability best practices.
The SRP Standard on Sustainable Rice Cultivation – the world’s first sustainability standard for rice –defines an overall framework for climate-smart sustainable best practice in any rice-based system. The standard was developed by a dedicated SRP Working Group and launched in October 2015. At the same time, a set of Performance Indicators (PIs) developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), was launched as a quantitative tool to measure impacts of adoption of the standard, or indeed any other farm-level intervention towards sustainability. SRP is now focusing on a multi-country field validation programme of the standard, PIs, and assurance system, an activity to which the project is also actively contributing.
The project has supported the development and adoption of the SRP standard in four pilot countries, in addition to on-farm activities for farmer empowerment. The project has been conducting pilot studies as part of the SRP’s multi-country field validation programme to assess the applicability, relevance and acceptability of the standard to the farmers as well as piloting the implementation of assurance schemes including the Internal Management System (IMS) for farmer groups in key rice-producing countries. The project works with local authorities and private partners in these interventions.
In Thailand, the pilot testing covers an assessment of the applicability of the standard, farmer training, establishment of an IMS, and a group assurance system. In Indonesia, a farmer survey to assess compliance of BRIA farmers with the SRP standard has been conducted.
Thailand’s Rice Department (RD), OLAM International, Bayer and BRIA have jointly initiated pilot testing of the SRP Standard with farmer groups in the north-eastern province of Ubon Ratchathani. RD, Olam, Bayer are among the 55 SRP members. Besides, Olam, a major commodity trader, is also a partner in the project market linkages component. The pilot testing of the standard in Thailand is also considered as one of the project’s interventions to improve market access for rice farmers in this area.
This year, pilot testing of the SRP standard in Thailand has been verified through a third-party audit. The audit results demonstrated improvements in farm performance when compared to the baseline. Twenty-eight farmers from Bua Ngam Community Rice Centre (CRC) and 43 farmers from Klang CRC have been verified as “working towards sustainability” (as provided for in the SRP’s Communication and Assurance Guidelines (Pilot Phase). According to this independent third-party assessment, the farmers’ compliance levels with the SRP standard average 84 percent against the SRP Sustainable Rice Cultivation Standard. Since improvement at the farm level may not be enough, BRIA believes the standard will offer innovative business models to help strengthen business relationships among rice value chain actors and to enhance market linkages.
In Indonesia, an assessment survey was carried out by a local university from late August to early September. BRIA farmers from the three districts of Serdang Bedagai, Langkat, and Deli Serdang in North Sumatra Province were selected. According to this self-evaluation, the farmers have complied with an average score of 68.7 per cent against the standard. The result of this study will later form the basis for further assessment by the Ministry of Agriculture on adoption of the SRP standard in Indonesia.
All results of the pilot studies for this year will be collected and provided as feedback to SRP in order to improve the standard and refine the assurance system. All in all, it can be concluded that the standard has proved a helpful tool in assessing the sustainability performance of rice farmers and as an impact- monitoring tool in identifying the risks and areas for improvement.