“I used to think keeping my field flooded was the only way.”
For nearly 30 years, Mr. Pham Van Phuong cultivated rice at the Thang Loi Cooperative in Dong Thap province, doing exactly what his father had taught him. The pumps ran regularly, and from transplanting until harvest the paddies were kept flooded. This is how rice is grown in the Mekong Delta. Water meant security. The more water in the field, the safer the crop.
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For a farmer responsible for his family’s livelihood, the decision to experiment with unfamiliar practices that required drying his fields did not come easily. He was sceptical, but curiosity and encouragement from the cooperative prompted him to try the method on part of his land.
One season later, the results surprised him. The plants looked healthier. Their roots had grown deeper and stronger. The stems stood firm even during heavy rain and wind. The decrease in pest pressure allowed him to reduce fertiliser and pesticide costs by 20 to 30 percent - equivalent to savings of over 3,000,000 VND (around €110) per hectare per crop. Yields increased by 200 to 500 kilograms per hectare and buyers offered a premium of 100 to 200 Vietnamese dongs per kilogram for rice grown under sustainable standards.
His shift reflects a much larger transition taking place in Vietnam’s rice sector.
While intensive cropping turned Vietnam into a top global exporter, this success also brought challenges. Continuous flooding and intensive fertiliser use have degraded soil health, while farmers face rising input costs and climate risks such as drought and salinity. Furthermore, flooded paddy fields are a major source of methane emissions, a gas responsible for nearly a third of current global warming.
To remain viable, the rice sector must move beyond a sole focus on productivity towards greater resilience and sustainability across the entire value chain. This means not only supporting farmers to adopt better practices, but also creating shared value for cooperatives, companies, and consumers – through improved quality, traceability and credibility in the market. For farmers like Mr. Phuong, the transition still needs to make economic sense: reducing costs while maintaining yields and opening access to better market opportunities. Otherwise, adoption will remain limited. This is where the work of Rikolto in Vietnam comes in.
In 2025, Rikolto partnered with provincial agricultural extension services to train and coach 513 farmers, including 144 women, on the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) standard. The training focused on transitioning to climate-friendly practices such as Alternate Wetting and Drying irrigation (AWD). Using simple plastic tubes installed in the soil, farmers monitor water levels and decide when irrigation is truly needed. While this practice may sound simple, learning the correct timing is essential, as excessive drying could harm the crop. Through field demonstrations and regular coaching, farmers gradually gained the confidence to apply this water-saving technique.
Another focus was rice straw management. The Mekong Delta produces over 26 million tonnes of rice straw annually. Much of this is burned or incorporated into flooded soil, releasing greenhouse gases. Instead, farmers explored using straw for mushroom cultivation, composting and livestock feed, farmers effectively mitigated emissions while creating additional income sources for the cooperatives and employment opportunities for participating members.
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Changing practices alone is not enough: farmers need reliable markets that reward sustainability. Through a project funded by the Government of Flanders via their programme FICAP (Flanders International Climate Action Programme), Rikolto partnered with the Belgian company BENEO to build a traceable value chain centred on the SRP standard. Roland Vanhoegaerden, operations manager of BENEO, explains: “In my opinion, SRP (standard) is currently the only answer to our company's and customers' expectations regarding the sourcing of sustainable rice. (...) What makes this project special is that we are fully integrated. With the help of Rikolto, we can work directly with the farmers, learn about their practices and ensure traceability.”
In my opinion, SRP (standard) is currently the only answer to our company's and customers' expectations regarding the sourcing of sustainable rice. (...) What makes this project special is that we are fully integrated. With the help of Rikolto, we can work directly with the farmers, learn about their practices and ensure traceability.
We supported cooperatives in improving their record keeping and preparing for certification. In 2025, the Tan Binh Agricultural Cooperative obtained SRP farm-level verification for 20 farmers covering 91.51 hectares with an average score of 93%, and the Thang Loi Agricultural Services Cooperative achieved certification at both Farm and Chain of Custody levels2 for 19 farmers managing nearly 99 hectares.
The first 500 tonnes of SRP-certified paddy rice were harvested from over 80 hectares while the rice manufacturers involved in the project overhauled their traceability procedures to ensure that certified rice will be tracked from the field through to mills and export markets. At the end of the supply chain, BENEO sources SRP-certified rice to process into rice-based ingredients for the food and pet food industries, thereby bridging the gap between farmers applying sustainable practices and international demand for sustainable and low-emission rice. The initial shipment is expected to reach around 75 tonnes, with ambitions to scale up to 800-1,000 tonnes annually.
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“We use satellite imagery to monitor the crop throughout the season. This gives us information about how farmers grow their rice and then calculate their greenhouse gas emissions. We use satellites because we believe that sustainable agriculture should be accessible to all farmers, not just large-scale producers where data is easily collected,”
Mr. James Hastwell | Co-founder of Carbon Farm.
Rikolto partners with Carbon Farm to track how irrigation practices influence methane emissions. By 2025, 645 hectares of rice fields across five cooperatives had begun transitioning to low-emission practices. Preliminary estimates showed that under conventional practices, emissions would have reached an estimated 13,635 tonnes of CO₂e. With improved water management and sustainable practices in place, total emissions were estimated at around 9,722 tonnes. This represents a net saving of 3,913 tonnes over two harvesting seasons, equivalent to a reduction 4.85 CO₂e per hectare. These early estimates highlight the strong potential of improved irrigation practices to significantly reduce methane emissions while supporting more sustainable rice production systems.
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Through support from the Livelihoods Carbon Fund, Rikolto is using Carbon Farm’s technology in a carbon project registered under the Gold Standard framework which aims to link emission reductions from rice production with climate finance, eventually creating an additional source of income to be reinvested in farmers and cooperatives. Additionally, regenerative rice trials near Tram Chim National Park are exploring how sustainable rice production can coexist with biodiversity conservation and the creation of healthier ecosystems.
Several lessons have emerged from these experiences.
Rikolto plans to expand the adoption of AWD irrigation and improved straw management across 14,500 hectares, and to prove that climate action and farmer livelihoods can advance together. The transformation begins with the everyday decisions of farmers, strengthened by the commitment of businesses and the enabling environment shaped by policymakers. That’s why we want to show what sustainable choices can bring.
Today, when Mr. Pham Van Phuong walks through his rice paddies and watches the water slowly recede between irrigation cycles, he no longer sees it as a risk. Instead, he sees healthier plants, lower costs and new opportunities. In his own fields, his results show that sometimes the strongest roots grow when people dare to change the way things have always been done.
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