#56 Rize
Revolutionizing Rice: Cutting Emissions, Boosting Yields
Read time: 5 minutes
Hi, I’m Javi Gascón.
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Today we’ll distill a company that’s transforming Asia's rice fields with tech to reduce methane and water use and help farmers: Rize 🇸🇬
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What Problem Does Rize Tackle❓
You guessed it, all the issues associated with rice cultivation in Asia.
1. Water Overuse: A single bowl of rice requires over 200 litres of fresh water, and the entire rice industry accounts for more than 30% of the world's irrigation water.
2. Farmer Income: Rice farmers currently struggle a lot with economic instability.
3. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Rice cultivation is the second-largest source of GHG emissions in agri-food and is responsible for up to 33% of Southeast Asia’s methane emissions. Methane has a warming potential 85X higher than CO2 in a 20-year timeframe.
4. Scale of the Problem: It’s already a staple crop for more than half of the world’s population, and it will see global demand increase by 50% by 2050.
5. Yield Gaps: In some Asian countries, yield gaps (difference in yield between different parts of the country) in rice production range from 37-39% in Indonesia and Vietnam to 51-60% in Cambodia, Myanmar, Philippines, and Thailand.
It’s one of the most important ingredients in the world and it needs to be more sustainable and better for farmers.
Product / Service 📦
Rize has created a digital platform designed to make rice farming more sustainable, efficient, and climate-resilient. They partner with smallholding farmers so they introduce the best techniques in their rice fields.
Sustainable Farming Practices: Rize promotes several…
Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD): Periodic drying and re-flooding of rice fields as opposed to keeping rice fields constantly flooded. Reduces water use by 30%, increases yield and cut down methane emissions by 1.4t per hectare per season.
Direct Seeding Rice (DSR): Sowing rice seeds directly into the soil reduces water consumption and seed cost and cuts down methane emission by 0.3t per hectare per season.
Soil Bacteria Additive: Soil bacteria additives reduce fertilizer use, improve grain quality and cut down methane emission by 3.3t per hectare per season.
Technology Integration: The platform uses GPS, drones, satellite imagery, and blockchain to provide precise mapping and tracking of rice fields, optimizing resource use such as water, fertilizers, and pesticides.
Economic Benefits: Farmers experience increased crop yields, lower farming costs, and up to a 30% increase in income. This enhances their economic stability and well-being.
Traceability and Quality: Blockchain technology ensures better traceability, food quality, and safety, addressing global food security concerns.
They are reducing GHG emissions, improving farmer livelihoods and enhance food security!
Market 🌐
The rice market is currently valued at around US$310 billion and is expected to grow 2X by 2050. The sustainable branch of the market will grow much faster given technological advances and regulatory and consumer pressure.
Other Key Players
DeHaat 🇮🇳: End-to-end agricultural services platform for Indian farmers, offering inputs, advisory, and market linkages. Serves over 2 million farmers across 11 states.
CropIn 🇮🇳: SaaS-based agritech platform providing farm digitization, data-driven insights, and AI-powered crop monitoring. Serves over 7 million farmers globally.
Farmonaut 🇮🇳: Satellite-based farm management system offering crop health monitoring, AI advisory, and precision agriculture solutions for farmers worldwide.
Founding Story 🦄
Rize was formed through a joint venture between several prominent investors, including Wavemaker Impact, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, GenZero, and Temasek. The initiative was announced in October 2022, with the official launch following thereafter.
At the helm of Rize is Dhruv Sawhney, who was appointed CEO. Sawhney brings extensive experience from his previous role as the head of Nuture.Farm, one of India's largest digital platforms for sustainable agriculture. Under his leadership at Nuture.Farm, he onboarded over 2.5 million farmers and led significant programs to eliminate crop residue burning.
Rize's mission is to decarbonize rice cultivation in Asia, particularly in Indonesia and Vietnam, by implementing sustainable farming practices and using economic incentives such as carbon credits.
They’ve raised $14 million to date and are expanding quickly across SE Asia.
Top Impact Stats 📈
1. As of September 2023 they had impacted over 5000 hectares of rice, onboarded thousands of farmers, and increased their incomes by 20%.
2. Their solutions help farmers improve rice productivity by 5-7%.
3. They plan to cut 500 million tons of emissions by 2040 (around 1% of global yearly emissions).
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