A Forum for our Future: Sustaining and Securing Rice Food Systems Gains Traction in Cambodia

The Better Rice Initiative Cambodia (BRIC) was launched to foster national collaboration in tackling the interconnected challenges of agriculture, climate change, and food security. Ensuring farmers’ needs are addressed to close current gaps and shortcomings in adopting climate-smart rice cultivation practices is indispensable. Understanding farm activities and benefits from implementing MRV activities are important priorities.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 16-21 February 2025 — Food and nutrition security are fundamental to human health, economic prosperity, and social stability, especially in regions where agriculture is a primary livelihood, such as Southeast Asia. Rice is at the heart of concurrent climate change mitigation discussions, given its significant contribution to global methane emissions. While rice farming is a source of greenhouse gases, it is also highly vulnerable to climate change-induced extreme weather effects.

As a step towards sustainable food systems, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) in collaboration with the Council of Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) of Cambodia, and the European Union, hosted the Future Forum: Sustaining Food Systems—Securing Futures in Cambodia from 16 to 21 February 2025.

At the forum, the Better Rice Initiative Cambodia (BRIC) was launched that aims to foster national collaboration in tackling the interconnected challenges of agriculture, climate change, and food security. BRIC partners are the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), Olam Agri, Council of Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD), Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) of Cambodia, the European Union, and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). The event also served as a collaboration platform to further IRRI’s Accelerating the Scaling of Low Emissions Rice (AcceLER) project, funded by Global Methane Hub. As such, the event helped connect experts in their experiences and viewpoints on…