One of Viet Nam’s largest agrifood businesses, Loc Troi Group, which works with 37,000 Vietnamese rice farmers and has an annual rice milling capacity of a million tonnes, will begin field-testing the world’s first sustainable standard for rice production in Viet Nam’s main rice growing region in the Mekong Delta.
The Loc Troi Group, which recently joined the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) as the first corporate member in Viet Nam, will pilot the SRP Standard for Sustainable Rice Cultivation criteria with 150 rice farmers across the Mekong Delta. The programme will then be extended to 4,500 farmers next year. Loc Troi operates via a contract farming system, using a field force of 1,300 agricultural engineers for training and farmer support. Loc Troi’s rice was ranked in the top 3 in the “World’s Best Rice” competition organized by The Rice Trader. Loc Troi aims to develop a sustainable, high quality value chain, and eventually market SRP-certified rice both domestically and abroad.
With 46 criteria, ranging from environmental impact and productivity, to food safety, worker health and labour rights, the SRP Standard aims to promote sustainable livelihoods for rice smallholders, reduce the social and environmental footprint of rice cultivation, whilst meeting consumer needs for food safety and quality. Under the standard, interventions at farm level will be tailored to the specific needs of the 150 farmers participating in the initiative, based on a recent baseline survey.
Viet Nam is one of the first countries in Asia Pacific to pilot the new standard. It will also be rolled out in several other countries this year, including Cambodia, India, Pakistan and Thailand. With 46 control points covering 8 key pillars of sustainability, the standard is aimed primarily at smallholders, and is complemented by a set of quantitative performance indicators to monitor impact.
The SRP Standard for Sustainable Rice Cultivation was launched in October 2015 by the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) to promote adoption of climate-smart sustainable best practice by rice smallholders. The SRP is a global alliance of 34 international and agricultural research institutions, public and private sector actors and civil society organizations, convened by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
To find out more or get involved: http://www.sustainablerice.org
