The Sustainable Rice NDC Alliance continues to support its core aim of implementing high-yield low-emission rice agriculture by elevating rice-related NDC commitments. We will explain the progress of the Alliance since winter and over Spring. Please contact the Alliance through James (james@sri-2030.org) or Francesco (francesco@sri-2030.org).
After our Focus on Finance meeting in October, the Alliance co-organised a panel on Food and Agriculture at the COP28 Resilience Hub in Dubai in November 2023 (the Resilience Hub report highlights the Alliance as a promising example for translating agricultural NDC commitments and food security ambitions into practice). Then, this February, we hosted a workshop in Nairobi with the African Climate Partnership (AfCAP) on African Paddy Rice Greenhouse Gas Mitigation. The event assembled stakeholders from governments and research institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa to identify issues with current GHG mitigation and propose comprehensive solutions. The Alliance led the session on policy and planning for mitigation and moderated a panel session with representatives from three Alliance member countries - Babacar Gaye from Senegal, Maman Zakara from Mali, and Christopher Kabah from Liberia who together addressed and emphasised the necessity of interconnections between rice-related science and policy.
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The Alliance continues to work directly with governments to design rice roadmaps with a current focus on West African nations. These are practical implementation plans combining agricultural policies such as National Rice Development Strategies or Climate Smart Agriculture frameworks with climate policy commitments such as those in countries’ NDCs. These systemic plans are intended to facilitate access to large-scale climate finance.
On April 22nd, we held a webinar in collaboration with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) to examine how the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) can contribute to achieving climate and development objectives within the framework of the Bank’s goals.
The event was designed to provide information on the science behind the benefits of SRI, examine the case study of SRI dissemination in Senegal, and explore how the implemention of SRI can help IsDB with achieving both their climate and development goals. With sixty attendees and representatives from thirteen countries attending we were thrilled by the positive response and insightful questions.
To see the event and learn what was discussed, please view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJPI2AvkVx4
Finally, we are happy to have welcomed Angola as a new member of the Alliance, who have since included SRI as a valuable approach within their updated National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS).
Currently, SRI-2030, the Alliance secretariat, is focusing its support on Africa, as we believe this is where we can maximise our impact. Although we will continue to support all nations pursuing sustainable rice production, our current assessments indicate that the increasing focus on African food security has created a political environment receptive to reform and government-led change, combining the goals of NDC achievement, with cross-department and development bank support.
To keep ahead of developments we are giving a reminder to all members that per the Paris Agreement, countries must submit their 2025 NDC revisions between November 2024 and February 2025. Therefore, as of April 2024, only 10 months remain for updating rice-related NDC commitments. We urge Alliance members to consider using rice agriculture as a mechanism for both climate mitigation and adaptation and therefore consider updating rice-related NDC commitments in the 2025 NDC update. The Alliance can assist with this process.
Going forward, to ensure Alliance members have access to reliable information on sustainable rice, we want to highlight some useful resources.
We hope you find this update informative and look forward to your continued engagement in our efforts to promote sustainable rice farming. Please do contact us if you would like the assistance of the Alliance with any of the topics mentioned in this email. We look forward to hearing from you.
