Writer: Agriculture and Food Cluster Team
Rice experts gathered in Bangkok for the South East Asia’s first-ever training on the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) to discuss appropriate practices for rice cultivation for the region.
“Our farmers produce good-quality rice,” said Duangporn Vithoonjit, an official attached to Chainat Rice Research Center, “But the SRP boosts confidence of both farmers and consumers that the rice is really safe to eat and meet the international standard.” Ms. Duangporn has worked in the rice supply chain for 11 years and recently joined the workshop.
The SRP is a multi-stakeholder platform established in December 2011 and co-convened by the UN Environment and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to promote sustainability in supply chains in the global rice sector, including research, policy making, production, trade and consumption.
Sixteen participants from Thai Rice Department under Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and SRP related projects in Thailand as well as Vietnam attended this two-day training between 3 and 4 December 2018 to decide how they can make the best out of SRP.
The training is aimed at helping the participants have a much better understanding about the SRP and be able to design the working steps to apply the SRP instruments at both national as well as project level.
The participants joined the standard assessment exercise on the second day which took place at a rice field in Bangkok’s Min Buri district.
