From Pilot to Purchase: Building the Market for Sustainable Rice in Asia

Rice underpins food security and the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers across Asia. Proven approaches, including heat-tolerant varieties and techniques such as alternate wetting and drying, already cut methane emissions and water use by a third or more, while lifting yields rather than reducing them. Yet many of these solutions remain stuck at pilot scale. This closed-door roundtable, convened by Philanthropy Asia Alliance (PAA) during Climate Week NYC, brings public, private and philanthropic leaders together to discuss how climate-resilient rice moves from proof of concept to proof of value. Buyers need to commit at volume. Farmers need viable economics. Supply chains need financing, standards and the capacity to deliver. Southeast Asia anchors the discussion, spanning markets shaped by growing export and international buyer interest alongside others that remain predominantly domestic and price-sensitive. The conversation will focus on what is holding sustainable rice back, what is already working, and what buyers, governments and funders can do next. This is an invite-only session with limited seats. Invitation requests are subject to confirmation by the organizers.