By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media
In a move to transform Asia’s rice sector as the world knows it, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), teaming up with food-secure research partnership CGIAR and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has embarked on an ambitious program. Launched this month, this effort aims to fundamentally reshape the region’s economic landscape by injecting significant investment into sustainable and low-carbon rice production. The ultimate goal is to transform the livelihoods of millions of vulnerable smallholder farmers across Asia and the Pacific while introducing more sustainable rice farming techniques.
As the staple crop of Asia and pockets of the Pacific, rice is simply indispensable. It not only nourishes more than 50 percent of the population daily but also forms the economic backbone for hundreds of millions of rural poor. Yet, this absolutely vital crop faces fierce headwinds. We’re talking about dwindling productivity and increasingly scarce water supplies, all exacerbated by the impact of greenhouse gas emissions.
Rice is mostly cultivated in flooded parcels, or paddies, which are believed to generate anywhere between 10 percent and 12 percent of global methane emissions. In Southeast Asia alone, rice farming can contribute as much as one-third of the region’s total methane output. If these practices continue unchecked, the consequences could extend beyond mere food shortages and cripple the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities.
ADB Vice-President for Sectors and Themes Fatima Yasmin explained, “Rice is essential to food security in Asia, supplying over a quarter of the region’s calorie intake, and half in Southeast Asia. For hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers, rice is not just food, it is their livelihood. Today, that livelihood is increasingly threatened by extreme weather and environmental degradation.”
Through the establishment of the ADB–CGIAR Clearinghouse Facility, co-financed by the Gates Foundation, this program has identified clear objectives. These include integrating resilient, high-yield, and low-emission farming practices; promoting sustainable water use; fostering inclusive value chains; and enhancing nutrition for the region’s most vulnerable, all per the official announcement. Beyond simply boosting output, the broader aim is to champion sustainable water use, cultivate inclusive value chains, and enhance nutrition for the region’s most impoverished populations.
As part of its financial commitment, the ADB plans to channel up to $1.5 billion into this program between 2025 and 2030. This capital will strengthen sustainable productivity, help farmers withstand harsher climate conditions and shrink the water and carbon footprints of rice cultivation. This dedicated investment also forms a component of ADB’s broader, sweeping pledge of $40 billion by 2030 aimed at fundamentally transforming food systems across the region – a commitment announced earlier this year.
Yvonne Pinto, Director General of the International Rice Research Institute, a key member of the CGIAR network, articulated the vision: “Alongside partners such as 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.”
The groundwork is already being laid, with early projects now under development in key rice-producing nations, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Pakistan and the Philippines.
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