Thailand (Southeast Asia)

Agriculture is the second largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting sector in Thailand. Rice production is responsible for almost 60% of emissions from agricultural activities. Thailand is the 4th largest emitter globally of rice-related GHGs – mainly methane. 

Since August 2018, Thailand’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives in cooperation with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (NAMA Support Organisation) have been commissioned by the NAMA Facility to implement the ‘Thai Rice NAMA Project’. Until August 2023, the Thai Rice NAMA project will enable a shift toward low-emission rice production in Thailand through:

• enabling farmers to implement low-emission rice farming; 

• supporting entrepreneurs in providing mitigation services (land laser levelling, alternate wetting and drying, site-specific nutrient management straw/stubble management) to farmers; and

• policy formulation and supporting measures promoting low-emission production at the national political level.

The target group of the Thai Rice NAMA project includes 100,000 farm households and 420 agricultural mitigation service businesses in six selected provinces of the Central Plains (Chainat, Ang-thong, Pathum Thani, Singburi, Ayutthaya, Suphanburi; abbreviated as CAPSAS). The project is expected to achieve a significant adoption of low-emission rice production by the targeted households, strengthened national capacity and local structures, market-available mitigation services, and leveraged finance for low-carbon investments and development in the rice sector, among other outputs.