Another 8 million euros invested in Thai Rice NAMA project
Thailand’s sustainable rice cultivation project has been extended by another year until July 2024 in a bid to encourage more farmers to participate.
The Thai Rice NAMA (Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action) project was launched in August 2018 jointly by the Agriculture Ministry and the German international cooperation agency GIZ. The project is worth 14.9 million euros or about 565 million baht.
The scheme has been implemented in six pilot provinces, namely Chai Nat, Pathum Thani, Singburi, Suphanburi, Ayutthaya and Ang Thong. It covers more than 2.8 million rai (448,000 hectares) of farmland and some 100,000 households.
Wichai Paksa, assistant director of the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC)'s personal loans division, said on Saturday that another 8 million euro has been allocated to the project for another year.
The working team plans to expand the project to another three provinces, namely Kamphaeng Phet, Lopburi and Nakhon Ratchasima, he said.
BAAC and GIZ are focusing on encouraging rice farmers to mitigate global warming and reduce production costs by employing technology for laser land levelling as well as alternating between wet and dry farming, using site-specific fertilisers and reducing the burning of farm scrub.
These actions, he said, will help reduce the emission of greenhouse gases by 30% as well as boost crop yield, improve rice quality and increase farmers’ income.
He added that BAAC is offering subsidies to farmers and agricultural service providers who participate in the Thai Rice NAMA project.
Wichai cited farmers in Suphanburi, who he said could reduce the cost of pumping water after using laser land-levelling technology.
Even though productivity has not risen much, it can reduce cost and thus generate more profit, he said.
Wichai said more than 25,000 farmers have benefited from the project between 2018 and 2021, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 305,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Rice cultivation is responsible for up to 55% of greenhouse gas emissions as water in rice fields emits methane.
Greenhouse gas emissions comprise carbon dioxide and methane. Methane accelerates global warming by 28 times compared to carbon dioxide.
