\n<\/p>\n
Philanthropy Asia Alliance (PAA), an initiative by Temasek Trust and one of the Decarbonising Rice Project’s backers, hopes to see such low-emission rice widely accepted by the community.<\/p>\n
“We want to make sure that the climate-friendly rice, (which is) less deleterious to the environment, will eventually be actually bought in supermarkets,” said PAA’s CEO Shaun Seow.<\/p>\n
Rize is also registering with the Indonesian national registry network platform for carbon offset credits, said Dr Sheetal, which should go a long way towards further boosting farmers’ income.<\/p>\n
“Once that is done, we aim to share around 70 per cent of the revenue that we make from the credits with the farmers.”<\/p>\n
TLL’s CEO Mr Chia attributed the successes of the Decarbonising Rice Project so far to the scientists’ painstaking research work, a network of partners pitching in to work \u00a0on “hard problems” together and a common vision that the long-term benefits “should accrue back to the people”.<\/p>\n
He also sees scope for extending this beyond rice growing to other crops and aquaculture.<\/p>\n
On the significance of such a project for Singapore, Dr Srinivasan said: “Singapore, though a non-agricultural country, is well-positioned as a regional hub for biotechnology, agri-food innovation and sustainable agriculture research.”<\/p>\n
Multi-sector collaborations and partnerships like this project, he said, create a more stable and sustainable regional food system for Singapore consumers, as well as opening doors for the country to stronger trade relationships with rice-producing nations across Asia.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, rice farmers who are already on board this programme are glad to be among the first to jump on the green bandwagon.<\/p>\n
“We’re all happy that we learnt a lot from this process, and learnt a new method that helps to improve our yields,” said Mr Kasno.<\/p>\n
“At the same time, we’re so grateful that we are also able to play a small part to mitigate global warming and make the world a better place.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n