Executive Summary:

Half of the world’s population depends on rice as a daily staple. Rice cultivation provides livelihood for 144 million resource-poor smallholder farmers. It is the second-largest source of man-made methane emissions contributing to climate change, draws on increasingly scarce water resources, and is responsible for agrochemical overuse. Production must increase 44% by 2050, compounding stresses. The Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) is a holistic system to meet the demand for rice sustainably, with smallholders in developing countries as the primary beneficiary. SRP incentivizes uptake of sustainable best practices, strengthens capacity of stakeholders to implement changes, and measures the impacts of change. Impacts are improved farmer livelihood (income, health), minimized environmental footprint (emissions, water, biodiversity), and sustainable rice in the market (food safety, responsible consumption). This proven system improves rice production in any geography. Let’s reach 1 million farmers in five countries to create transformational change in the global rice sector.