The Mitigation Action Facility was delighted to recently receive the news: the Thai Rice project has matured to the point of being supported by the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
As announced by GIZ Thailand, “GIZ and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) signed the Funded Activity Agreement (FAA) for the project “Thai Rice: Strengthening Climate-Smart Rice Farming”. The project was approved during the 37th meeting of the GCF Board in Tbilisi, Georgia and proposed by GIZ as an accredited entity to the fund.”
The Project
The project was initially supported by the Mitigation Action Facility in 2018 during the Facility’s 4th Call for Projects. Planned to be supported by the Facility until the end of 2023, further funding has arrived at an ideal time, enabling the project to have an even greater impact in the Thai agricultural sector.
As it is called in the Mitigation Action Facility portfolio, the project “Thailand – Low-Emission Rice (‘Thai Rice’)” aimed to enable a shift towards low-emission rice production in Thailand through a combination of three core components:
1) enabling farmers to implement low-emission rice farming;
2) supporting entrepreneurs in providing mitigation services (i.e. land laser levelling);
3) supporting policy formulation and measures promoting low-emission rice production at the national political level (i.e. the development of the “Good Agricultural Practices” – GAP ++ Standard).
The project targeted 100,000 farming households and 420 agricultural mitigation service providers in six relevant provinces in the Central Plains of Thailand. Working with farmers and farmers’ associations as well as external service providers in adapting advanced farming practices and developing respective incentive schemes, including financial support, the project truly applied a grass-roots approach to social transformation.
The new funding from the GCF will enable the project to reach even more people. As per GIZ Thailand, the funding will allow the project to “promote low-emission and climate-resilient rice farming. During its 5-year implementation period, it will benefit more than 250,000 smallholder farmers in Thailand and mitigate 2.4 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. A cross-cutting project, it will both reduce emissions as well as reduce impacts from climate change on farmers.”
The Mitigation Action Facility congratulates the project team, and wishes them continued success in their endeavours.