Open toolbar Accessibility Tools PRODUCTS OUR STORY SUSTAINABILITY 25th ANNIVERSARY RECIPES BLOG More Crop Per Drop™ Impact Regenerative Organic Meet Our Farmers Resources Rice is Life! LET’S DO THE RICE THING AND MAKE RICE SUSTAINABLE Half the world’s population depends on rice for their daily calories. But rice production takes a toll on humans and the environment. Most people are surprised to learn that rice is not an aquatic plant and does not need constant water coverage to grow. In addition to diminishing soil health, flooded fields also contribute to global warming by emitting methane gas, which has 30X the warming effect of carbon dioxide in the short-term. We also take for granted who produces rice. The world’s global rice supply is literally produced on women’s backs. Women generally do the arduous, back-breaking repetitive work of uprooting and transplanting seedlings, weeding and harvesting, working in unsanitary conditions. We think it’s important to reduce the negative impact of rice production on water, the environment and women’s bodies. In the long term it affects us all. Because of this, Lotus Foods supports More Crop Per Drop™️ – a set of agroecological rice-growing practices that saves water, restores soils and biodiversity, improves incomes and quality of life for farmers, especially women, and reduces climate impact. Together we can all “Do the Rice Thing.” WHAT IS MORE CROP PER DROP™? What we define as More Crop Per Drop™ is an organic version of a growing process called “System of Rice Intensification.” (SRI). SRI was developed to improve rice yields of low-income farmers to alleviate poverty and improve food security. Promoted by development agencies such as Oxfam, Africare and WWF, SRI does not require specialized seeds, chemicals or inputs. All it requires is a willingness to cultivate rice in a different way, to optimize the plants’ growing conditions . The key tenets of SRI are to plant smaller, younger seedlings to reduce transplant shock, to plant them at wider spacing in rows (rather than randomly in clumps) to minimize competition and facilitate weeding, and to keep soils moist but not continuously flooded to promote soil health. SRI practices result in: Less work and disease risk for women due to fewer and lighter seedlings to manage, upright weeding, and no work in standing water. More water available for other crops, ecosystems and communities Conventional Rice Farming MCPD/SRI Rice Farming A large quantity of older seedlings (21 – 45 days old) are pulled from nurseries for transplanting, requiring arduous work in standing water, mostly done by women. 80 – 90% fewer seedlings means smaller nurseries to manage and less expense for seed. 8 – 15 day old seedlings can be easily removed and transported, saving time/labor. Transplanting clusters of seedlings randomly into flooded fields involves days, even weeks, of backbreaking, repetitive labor by women in unsanitary conditions. Flooding fields can help suppress weed growth but labor-intensive manual weeding is still required. Transplanting single seedlings into moist fields on a grid pattern reduces women’s labor and eliminates their need to work in standing water, a serious health hazard. Planting in rows facilitates mechanical weeding for faster weeding and soil aeration, and it can be done in an upright posture. SRI/MCPD growing conditions promote soil health and reduce competition among plants, resulting in more extensive root systems (SRI plant on the left) that contribute to the higher yields. At Lotus Foods, the rice produced by our farmers practicing More Crop Per Drop™ is USDA certified organic. Check out the video below for more details about how SRI works. IMPACT An estimated 5000 households in Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Madagascar and Thailand benefit from Lotus Foods’ rice purchases and premiums due to Organic and Fair Trade certifications. SRI growing practices can generate up to 3X higher yields for farmers. Fair Trade is a pillar of Lotus Foods’ mission and our goal of improving the incomes of family rice farmers. We currently offer certified Fair Trade premiums to producers in Cambodia, India and Indonesia. In Cambodia, from 2013-2017, we paid about $100,000 in premiums that buttressed farmers’ incomes directly and enabled communities to invest in a community store, leadership training, latrines, rice mill, rainwater harvesting and community center. We are especially proud that our Volcano Rice [Tricolor Rice], sourced from More Crop Per Drop™ farmers in Indonesia, was the first rice ever to be certified as Fair for Life. Fair for Life standards are the most rigorous in the industry, encompassing economic, environmental and social justice issues. Savings of approximately 500 million gallons of water annually by reducing the amount of water used to irrigate rice fields under SRI management. Methane gas emissions from SRI rice fields are reduced by approximately 40% by not keeping fields flooded. The time women spend bent over transplanting and weeding is cut in half by SRI practices. And because they no longer have to work constantly in standing water, their exposure to parasites, leeches and other disease vectors like malarial mosquitoes is drastically reduced. MEET OUR FARMERS Nothing we sell would be possible without our farmers. We’ve dedicated our business to improving their lives and communities as well as the health of our shared environment. Click on an image below to learn more about some of our SRI farmers. Meet one of our Madagascar Pink Rice Farmers. 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