In line with our commitment towards a sustainable rice cultivation, we have recently initiated a new project in Thailand, together with other relevant industry players, including Olam Agri, PepsiCo, Mars, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), a German agency with expertise in international cooperation projects, with the common goal of strengthening and transforming the Thai rice sector for a climate-friendly approach.

The project, devised under a win-win philosophy, will create sustainable development benefits for the local population in the project regions, improve income opportunities for farmers and contribute further to environmental protection. At the same time, corporate partners will have greater assurance of the reliability, transparency, and sustainability of our supply chains.

The project is intended to run from 2024 to 2028, covering 21 provinces and is estimated to benefit more than 250,000 farmers, while reducing more than 2.44 million tons of CO2 emissions. The focus will be on training smallholder farmers in climate-smart farming practices and pesticide reduction, supporting farmers’ livelihoods by providing them with additional sources of income, strengthening institutional frameworks and restructuring market drivers towards climate-smart agriculture, as providing financial services to facilitate farmers’ purchase of climate-friendly technologies.

Regarding the engineering side, the technical partners in Thailand that will participate in the Project are the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), the Rice Department (RD) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives of Thailand (MoAC), as well as the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP).