Better Rice Initiative Asia- Monthly Update

Transcription

1 Contribute to Better Rice Production and Nutrition in South East Asia Better Rice Initiative Asia- Monthly Update Photo credit GIZ BRIA Indonesia Volume: 24 - February 2017

2 2 Editor s Note Managing Sustainable Rice The February issue of the BRIA newsletter is pleased to present the following articles: As the BRIA project will end in this year, the BRIA Regional Secretariat (RS) is initiating new projects. The Thai Rice NAMA is a new project being prepared in response to the NAMA Facility s 4 th Call for proposals. It aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from irrigated rice cultivation in the Central Plains of Thailand by implementing different financial incentive mechanisms to facilitate a sector transformation to sustainable farming practices according to the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) Standard. The project outline was submitted in October, 2016 and later in December, feedback was provided that the Thai Rice NAMA project has been shortlisted for a detailed on-site assessment. Currently, 11 projects including the Thai Rice NAMA are in the competition, and at the end of February this year, the donors contributing to the NAMA Facility funding will decide how many and which projects should receive funding for the Detailed Preparation Phase (DPP) of the project implementation. At the end of the DPP, a detailed project proposal would need to be submitted for the final assessment and the NAMA Facility s decision on funding for the whole project implementation. If approval is granted, the timeframe for the implementation of the project would be five years, commencing in In December 2016, BRIA RS and Viet Nam in collaboration with MARD (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) organized a workshop to introduce the SRP Standard to Vietnamese key partners from publicprivate sectors, farmers, researchers and NGOs. In the workshop, an overview of the standard and its Performance Indicators (PIs) were presented and valuable experiences were shared in piloting the standard in Indonesia and Thailand carried out by BRIA and in Viet Nam by Loc Troi Group. Both GIZ-BRIA and Loc Troi Group are SRP members. The participants also discussed issues related to the standard application and certification in the agricultural sector in Viet Nam in light of other sustainability standards. The SRP Secretariat would initiate a national workshop on the SRP introduction later in Viet Nam in cooperation with the Rice PPP Task Force established with the support of BRIA Viet Nam. Apart from how well group members understand the full standard requirements, establishing well-designed internal management systems (IMS) is vital to implement internationally accepted management standards including the SRP Standard. The IMS also ensures the group is competent to perform its own assurance process. Important factors for an effective IMS are how well documented the group structures and individual group member practices are and how accurate and complete the production, chain of custody and management records are. This BRIA newsletter presents recommended steps to a successful implementation of the IMS to build confidence that a group complies with the SRP Standard. Asia is a most disaster-prone area in the world and has experienced the highest number of natural disasters worldwide in the last 115 years. Since these damages have resulted in large economic, social and financial losses, the question therefore arises as to how states can financially deal with those very strong disasters. More than 90 representatives from 11 Asian countries participated in an executive consultation forum and capacity building seminar to learn and share their experiences on mechanisms to deal with financial risks resulting from climate change. The event was organized by the Strategic Alliance on Climate Risk Transfer Solutions (Strategic Alliance), which is a Public-Private-Partnership project between GIZ and the international reinsurer Swiss Re. The organization and facilitation of the workshop was supported by ASEAN SAS, BRIA and RIICE (Remote Sensing-based Information and Insurance for Crops in Emerging Economies). BRIA offers a brief report about this significant event. Suriyan Vichitlekarn, BRIA Regional Director Kamol Taukitphaisarn, BRIA Communication

3 3 Thai Rice NAMA Background In September 2016, the government of Thailand ratified the Paris Agreement, thereby officially confirming the commitment towards climate change mitigation and adaptation in order to limit global warming. The Paris Agreement, which entered into force on 4 November 2016, requires all Parties to the Convention to put forward their best efforts through nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead. Thailand s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) envisage a reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of at least 20% by the year 2030 compared to the projected businessas-usual situation. Thailand is currently the world s 4th largest emitter of GHG mainly methane (CH 4 ) from rice cultivation. Globally, it is estimated that CH 4 emissions from rice paddies amount to at least 500 million tons of CO 2 equivalents annually. However, rice cultivation does not only contribute to climate change the sector is also highly vulnerable to adverse climate change impacts, as extreme weather events are a threat to harvest. To achieve a paradigm shift in Thailand s agricultural sector overall, it is therefore crucial to initiate change in rice cultivation. While global demand for sustainably produced rice is increasing Mars Food for instance, a major actor in the global food industry, recently announced its commitment to switch to more sustainable sourcing of rice, supply lags behind. This challenge is being addressed by the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP), a global multi-stakeholder alliance. The SRP Standard on Sustainable Rice Cultivation (SRP Standard) was launched in October It provides a working definition of sustainability in any rice system that can be objectively measured using quantitative Performance Indicators (PIs). Amongst other sustainability criteria, GHG mitigation and adaptation play a central role in the standard. While effectiveness and efficiency of the techniques required by the SRP Standard have been proven by science and applied in pilot studies, several barriers to adoption have been identified, which require the implementation of incentive mechanisms.

4 4 SRP Standard : Promote sustainable rice cultivation globally PI 9 : GHG emissions Project scope Impact No.6 : Mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and adapt rice production systems to changing climate Co-benefits Environmental Sustainability PI 5 : Water use efficiency PI 6 : Nutrient use efficiency N PI 7 : Nutrient use efficiency P PI 8 : Pesticide use efficiency PI 1 : Profitability net income from rice PI 2 : Labor profitability PI 3 : Productivity grain yield Economic Sustainability SRP Standard Social Sustainability PI 4 : Food safety PI 10 : Health & safety PI 11 : Child labor PI 12 : Women s empowerment The Thai Rice NAMA In order to support Thailand to achieve its NDC, the concept for a new NAMA-support project or NSP (called the Thai Rice NAMA ) is being prepared in response to the NAMA Facility s 4 th Call for proposals. The main goal of this project is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions mainly methane from irrigated rice cultivation in six focus provinces of the Central Plains of Thailand: Chainat, Ang Thong, Pathum Thani, Singburi, Ayutthaya, and Suphanburi (short: CAP- SAS). Different financial incentive mechanisms shall be implemented to facilitate a sector transformation to sustainable farming practices according to the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) Standard. One of the SRP Standard s key goals is to mitigate GHG emissions and to promote climate-resilient rice-production systems. The above graphic visualizes the different issues addressed by the SRP Standard and the related PIs, how they are related to the three pillars of sustainability, and how the scope of the NSP is defined in relation to the Standard s scope. The focus of the NSP is clearly on the mitigation of GHG emissions from rice cultivation, while additional co-benefits will be realized related to the other areas which are improved by the standard.

5 5 Baseline emissions (diff.ef) High Thai Low Projected emissions (diff.ef) High Thai Low % CH4 emissions (kt CH 4 /yr) % -27% -27% -27% -27% 0 Chainat Ang Thong Phathumthani Sing Buri Ayutthaya Suphanburi Economic Mitigation Potential Source: IRRI calculations for the Thai Rice NAMA, 2016 Expected Mitigation Potential The most relevant technique to be applied as part of the SRP Standard to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions is Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD). AWD is a water management methodology which features repeated interruption of irrigation, so that rice fields are not constantly flooded, reducing the occurrence of methane producing bacteria. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has strongly contributed to the development of the proposal by providing estimations on the mitigation potential of the project. Over the whole project timeframe of 5 years, a realistic mitigation potential of around millon metric tons (Mt) of CO 2 equivalents (CO 2 eq) is expected. The estimations consider direct emissions of methane (CH 4 ) resulting from flooding of rice fields, and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) related to fertilizer application, complemented by indirect CO 2 emissions resulting from fertilizer production. AWD alone has the potential to reduce direct CH 4 emissions in CAPSAS by 26% on average, as compared to continuous flooding. CAPSAS should be conceived as a lighthouse region that will stimulate uptake of mitigation practices in other provinces. It is assumed that spill-over effects from 6 target provinces to the entire rice area in Central Thailand within 5 years after project termination are realistic. The Thai Rice NAMA project would utilize important lessons learned from the BRIA project and continue established partnerships with the Sustainable Rice Platform and other important partners. Expected Project Timeframe The project outline was submitted by the Thai Rice Department at the end of October In December, feedback was provided that the Thai Rice NAMA project has been shortlisted for a detailed on-site assessment together with 11 other project outlines out of 75 project outlines that had been submitted in total. The on-site assessment was conducted by a team of three assessors in Bangkok including a field trip to visit Community Rice Centres (CRCs) in Suphanburi and Chainat from January The purpose of the assessment was to evaluate the preparedness of the project in more detail and to assess the degree of national ownership and stakeholder commitment. Currently, 11 projects including the Thai Rice NAMA are still in the competition, and at the end of February 2017, the donors contributing to the NAMA Facility funding will decide how many and which projects should receive funding for the Detailed Preparation Phase (DPP) of the project implementation. At the end of the DPP, a detailed project proposal would need to be submitted for the final assessment and the NAMA Facility s decision on funding for the whole project implementation. If approval is granted, the timeframe for the implementation of the project would be five years, starting in 2018.

6 6 Promotion of Sustainable Rice Cultivation Practices in Viet Nam Sustainable rice cultivation practices are highly promoted by BRIA, with a number of interventions that are adjusted to local conditions and local wisdom of each BRIA pilot country. In Viet Nam, the promotion of GAP (Good Agricultural Practices), sustainable and safe production, in combination with Public-Private- Partnership (PPP) approach are advocated with great support from MARD (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) and DARD (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development). On 22 December 2016, BRIA Viet Nam initiated a workshop inviting various stakeholders that have collaborated with GIZ Viet Nam in the rice sector to exchange views on the SRP Standard on Sustainable Rice Cultivation. Around 100 participants joined this event and a fruitful discussion was obtained. The participants are implementation partners of the BRIA project, who had an annual evaluation a day prior, local and international millers/traders as well as representatives of NGOs, farmer associations, and public agencies. GIZ finds that a global standard for sustainable rice cultivation is one of the alternative tools to enhance the sustainability of the rice sector. The Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) has published a sustainable rice cultivation standard, which was developed by SRP members including GIZ. The standard offers several recommendations to be implemented at the farm level. However, to effectively implement the standard, joint collaboration with various stakeholders is needed. Transformation of all levels in the value chain is important to sustain the rice sector in the country. Viet Nam has made steady progress in the agricultural sector and become a major rice exporting country. The Government of Viet Nam has endorsed the establishment of the Public Private Task Force on Sustainable Agricultural Growth in Vietnam for priority commodities, supported by the World Economic Forum s New Vision for Agriculture initiative (NVA). The task forces are platforms for multi-stakeholder partnerships to improve collaboration among public-private stakeholders of each commodity, also introduced as the Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture in Viet Nam (PSAV). The task force is seen as a perfect match to improve the adoption of the PPP model in the promotion of sustainable rice cultivation and production In Viet Nam.

7 7 In the workshop-cum-seminar, representatives from DARD, GIZ, and Loc Troi Group made presentations. All agencies stressed the importance of improving the sustainable farming. GIZ and Loc Troi Group have committed themselves to supporting the improvement of sustainable rice cultivation in Viet Nam by introducing the SRP Standard, among others. GIZ shared its lessons learned from the pilot testing in Thailand and Indonesia in At the same time, Loc Troi Group is one of the most advanced companies that pilot the standard in Viet Nam. Both presentations tried to show the lessons learned of various pilot tests and how the sustainable standard could positively boost the sustainable rice production in Viet Nam, which will also improve the social and economic sustainability of farmers. In Viet Nam, the government has actively innovated various principles and standards (Viet Gap, Global Gap, Organic Certification, the best practice principles of 1 Must Do - 5 Reductions, and 3 Reductions 3 Increases, etc.) to improve the agricultural sector. Introducing a new standard may confuse farmers and other value chain actors. Therefore, further assessment of the current, promoted standards and principles are needed to streamline all sustainable good practices in Viet Nam, under the same framework. MARD should also consider how the SRP Standard will then be integrated with the national policy. On the other hand, the other stakeholders also realised that sustainable practices are crucial to sustain the rice sector in the future. Moreover, interest from the private sector has been given and farmers are willing to adopt additional recommendations on sustainability. Besides, the standard implementation model needed to be further assessed and adapted to the Vietnamese context. The Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD) is tasked with a survey for fact-finding of the current rice quality control system in Viet Nam, analysis of the existing rice cultivation standards and possibility to adopt the Sustainable Rice Cultivation Standard. The results of the survey will be used as inputs for the preparation of the national rice task force workshop. The task force could also potentially become the umbrella of the working group for Sustainable Standard - Viet Nam, and to coordinate the adaption of the SRP Standard on Sustainable Rice Cultivation. The SRP Secretariat would initiate a national workshop on SRP introduction in Viet Nam tentatively in March 2017 to socialize the SRP Standard with various stakeholders. GIZ fully supports this activity, willing to join forces with other stakeholders to promote sustainable rice cultivation practices in Viet Nam. Article contributed by Astari W. Dharma

8 8 Implementing the IMS for Group Assurance In the application of a standard for sustainable agricultural practices, an assurance system becomes crucial to facilitate members compliance with the standard. Conducting a group assurance helps improve the efficiency with third-party audits performed for system certification. This article discusses the first-tier assurance system conducted at group level. Group assurance is a practice of organising individuals or businesses into structured groups in order to streamline the assurance process for group members (a group of farmers). The group may consist of an organisation of individuals or businesses that acts as a single client for assurance purposes. The group can be formal or informal but must have a documented structure the Internal Management System (IMS). Groups can be organised by commodity brokers, input suppliers, NGOs or by group members themselves. In order to ensure the group is competent to perform its own assurance process, the group must have an internal management system (IMS) or internal control system (ICS) in place that instils confidence that the individual group members are meeting the requirements of the standard. At the same time, the management system plays a vital role in supporting learning for group members. In the adoption of a sustainable rice standard, the Community Rice Centre (CRC) in Thailand can operate as IMS. BRIA as a project provides support to strengthen the IMS and to ensure that the system will be sustained by the CRC independently in the future. Additional support by Rice Department (RD) and Department of Agricultural Extension (DoAE) regarding Good Agricultural Practices (Thai GAP) will be most helpful to divide the tasks.

9 9 The table hereunder follows the recommended steps to implement an IMS. The actual situation requires that the program can be flexible to implement the recommendations based on the actual dynamics of the stakeholders involved Developing an Organizational Chart Function Descriptions and Staff Qualifications Risk Assessments Annual Plan for Improvement & Data Collection for KPI s Capacity Building Program Farmer List and Locations Internal Standard Agreements with Farmers/Members The organizational structure of the CRC is known. An organizational chart is required. For a number of functions, the CRC has to consider appointing specific people, e.g. for training/learning, for sales/procurement and for internal inspection. Basic function descriptions need to be developed together with the board of CRC and people have to be appointed for the different roles identified within the CRC management team. A basic risk assessment can be made by the first baseline data collected by BRIA. BRIA can assist CRC to set for this year the main priorities to work towards sustainable rice production of the farmer members. This tool can be improved for the next year crop cycle and form the basis of next year annual plan. A more thorough risk assessment including the views of the farmers organized by CRC management, can make future annual plans stronger. The annual plan may be divided into 3 main topics: IMS setting up the structure and main procedures with support of BRIA Data collection at farm level by farmers and monitored by CRC. Data collection at CRC by CRC - IMS staff and support of BRIA GAP and environment based on Thai GAP with support from RD and DoAE For the first year, it is suggested that BRIA should manage and monitor the KPI s according to the standard. The data can be shared with the farmers in the CRC to reflect on their performance and look at options for improvement. By next year rice season, this should preferably be delegated to CRC IMS staff. The purpose is to strengthen the skills, competencies and abilities of farmers. The CRC has a clear list of their members. The internal standard has to be developed, extracted out of the individual control points of the SRP sustainable standard. The CRC should consider how to explain to the members about the benefits and the requirements of the standard. Also the approval and sanction procedure should be clearly communicated.

10 Soil Fertilization Program Integrated Pest Management Social Policy at IMS Level Traceability Internal Inspection Approval/Sanction Procedure Grievance Procedure Self-Evaluation External Audit Soil fertilization program will be based on soil sample analysis and application proposal by an official recommended office. For the time being, the Thai GAP can be leading. This will sufficiently limit the risk of bad practices for the first year in the sustainable rice program. A social policy needs to be developed based on a proposed template and the actual situation. The CRC collects rice from the individual farmers to sell to the miller/cooperative. The CRC has developed forms for this activity. It is suggested that BRIA should ensure this meets the requirements. The complete internal inspection system needs to be worked out. RD already has experiences with PGS (Participatory Guarantee System) for organic rice. This procedure can be most helpful when implementing the internal inspection for the SRP rice standard. Within the IMS of CRC, a person or group of people should be appointed as the approval committee to take individual inspection records into consideration for approval, corrective measures or sanctions. A procedure is needed to make the process of decision making transparent for all members. This procedure is designed to provide a framework for the quick and effective resolution of difficulties that may arise. The recommendation is to take this up later in The self-evaluation is to go through all control points of the standard and give the points according to the score. For this reason, the data collection tool is the most practical tool to do the self-evaluation. The scoring will determine the level of sustainability of the SRP sustainable standard. An external auditor needs to be appointed based on criteria to be developed by UTZ and presented to SRP as part of the assurance model. UTZ will approve external auditors that meet the requirements of accreditation. Article based on recommendations made by UTZ for BRIA in Thailand

11 11 Public and private partners explore solutions to reduce financial risks of climate change Photo credit GIZ BRIA Indonesia More than 90 representatives from 11 Asian countries participated in an executive consultation forum and capacity building seminar to learn and share their experiences on mechanisms to deal with financial risks resulting from climate change. It was organized by the Strategic Alliance on Climate Risk Transfer Solutions (Strategic Alliance), which is a Public- Private-Partnership project between GIZ and the international reinsurer Swiss Re, with the objective to improve access to smart climate risk transfer solutions at sovereign and sub- sovereign levels for selected Asian and African governments. The event was the first of its kind in the Asian region organized by the two partners and took place in Jakarta, Indonesia. Participants represented a wide variety of government institutions (e.g., Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Finance), the private sector (e.g., insurance companies) and development partners (e.g., ASEAN and the World Bank). It sought to provide a platform for Asian government officials to exchange on how their institutions can better protect their budget against unexpected climate related loss and increase their understanding of ex-ante and ex-post financial risk management instruments as well as empower participants to integrate sovereign risk transfer situations into a risk management strategy. The overall objective of the event was to allow the participants to learn and share their knowledge encompassing the following themes and topics: Developing a climate risk financing strategy to find the right balance between ex-ante and ex-post instruments, considering relative costs and benefits associated with different risk financing instruments Funding of public sector recovery and reconstruction needs Natural catastrophe insurance solutions Agricultural insurance schemes and products Availability of international guidance and support to countries seeking to develop risk transfer solutions

12 12 Asia is one of the most disaster-prone areas in the world and has experienced the highest number of natural disasters worldwide in the last 115 years. These damages have strong peaks over the years, resulting in large economic, social and financial losses. Losses caused by natural catastrophes are largely not covered by insurance and have to be borne by individuals, companies or governments. In developing countries, protection through insurance is rare. In the event of a disaster, governments usually respond reactively. This could be, reallocating budget and funds for relief and reconstruction purposes, and requesting assistance from international donors. This drain on resources can have a damaging effect on a country s longer-term economic and social development objectives, jeopadising many of the achievements made in pursuit of the economic growth. In his keynote presentation, Dr. Alexander Jaeger, the project leader of the Strategic Alliance at GIZ, emphasized that the financial impact of climate change will continue to represent a growing financial burden for societies across Asia and that climate risk transfer solutions such as insurance is one promising option for governments to address this worrying situation and financially cushion against those very strong disasters. The Strategic Alliance pursues its activities in four different areas: awareness raising and technical capacity building, supporting national stakeholder dialogue process, developing and testing suitable products, and networking activities and establishing a community of practice. The activities of the RIICE project complement the goal of the Strategic Alliance on Sovereign Climate Risk Transfer s : Providing governments with smart climate risk transfer solutions. RIICE can play an important part in an integrated disaster risk management approach, consisting of risk identification, assessment, prevention and mitigation and adaptation (risk transfer) by providing the underlying technological backbone. For the future, RIICE intends to strengthen its collaboration with the Strategic Alliance on Sovereign Climate Risk Transfer and Swiss Re in Southeast Asia. For more information, please visit ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems (ASEAN SAS), Better Rice Initiative Asia (BRIA) and Remote Sensing-based Information and Insurance for Crops in Emerging Economies (RIICE) supported the organization and facilitation of the workshop as their field of work and the partners they cooperate with are strongly linked with the participating audience. The RIICE project, in particular, has supported partner countries in Southeast Asia in developing and operating an innovative remote sensing technology which enables them to regularly monitor their rice production and to assess damages in case of natural disasters such as typhoons, floods and droughts. The European Space Agency s Sentinel radar satellites are the backbone of the RIICE technology. This risk management tool enables policy makers to better respond to the impacts of natural catastrophes in particular when it is embedded in new or existing crop insurance programs. In 2016/17 the first crop insurance pilot which integrates satellite-derived information is conducted in India under the umbrella of RIICE.

13 13 Mr. Suriyan Vichitlekarn, BRIA Regional Director, moderates a session with Dr. Marqueza Reyes (ASEAN DRFIP), Dr. Aryusri Kumbunlue, Thai Office for Insurance Commission, Mr. Norman Cajucom (PCIC, Philippines). Ms. Susan Gille, RIICE Project Manager, presents in a market place session, regional activities and international support on disaster risk insurance solutions.

14 In Collaboration with National and Regional Agencies and Published by: BRIA Regional Secretariat Office 39/1 Soi Sukhumvit 13, Sukhumvit Road, Klongtoey Nua, Wattana, Bangkok Thailand Responsible for the content: Suriyan Vichitlekarn (BRIA Regional Director) If you want to be added or removed from this mailing list, please contact: