The Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers (CGIAR) and the Gates Foundation have launched an initiative to boost investment in sustainable and low-carbon rice production to improve the lives of vulnerable smallholder-farmers across Asia-Pacific, including the Philippines.
The ADB said in a press briefing on Monday it will invest up to $1.5 billion through the program from 2025 to 2030 to improve farm productivity, make it sustainable, help it adapt to harsher climate conditions, and reduce water and carbon footprints in the Asia-Pacific region.
Qingfeng Zhang, senior director at ADB’s agriculture, food, nature and rural development sector office, told reporters in Los Baños, Laguna that out of the $1.5 billion, up to $500 million has been earmarked for the Philippines alone.
Program funds will also be used specifically for irrigation, farming and agricultural logistical development in the country, Zhang said.
“This new program will also support … not only rice production but will also help the farmers to capture the carbon credit through the system,” Zhang explained.
Carbon credits are tradable certificates for the right to emit an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
The Seattle-based Gates Foundation is co-financing the Asia-Pacific project, a statement posted by the ADB on its official website on Monday indicated.
“Through the newly established ADB–CGIAR Clearinghouse Facility, cofinanced with the Gates Foundation, the initiative will drive the adoption of resilient, high-yield, and low-emission farming practices; sustainable water use; inclusive value chains; and improved nutrition for the region’s poorest,” the ADB said in the statement.
The $1.5-billion project has been designed to reverse declines in rice farm productivity and the shrinking of water supplies amid the significant contribution of rice production to greenhouse gas emissions. Studies by the World Bank and the ADB have shown that rice farming causes greenhouse gas emissions when methane is released from flooded rice paddies, and nitrous oxide is emitted from nitrogen fertilizers and the burning of rice straw.
Greenhouse gases released through human activities trap heat in the atmosphere, leading to global warming and climate anomalies that worsen storms and droughts, cause oceans to warm and their levels to rise, and lead to the loss of species, food shortages, and increased health risks, studies from the United Nations show.
The ADB has warned that if left unaddressed, such challenges could threaten food security and the well-being of vulnerable farming communities.
The $1.5-billion funding for the Asia-Pacific project has been set as part of the ADB’s broader $40-billion commitment to food-systems transformation by 2030, which was announced last May, the ADB said in its statement.
“This joint initiative will reinforce CGIAR’s strategic collaboration with ADB and scale up CGIAR’s innovations in rice systems and beyond… Alongside partners such as the ADB and Gates Foundation, we can drive sustainable and resilient transformation of the rice sector in Asia and transform the lives of millions of smallholder farmers now and in the future,” said Yvonne Pinto, director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). IRRI is a member of the CGIAR network of research centers.
Apart from the Philippines, other countries set to initially benefit from the $1.5-billion project are Bangladesh, Cambodia, China and Pakistan, the ADB said.
