Pakistan

Project overview

Pakistan’s food systems are strongly anchored in agriculture, with rice playing a critical role in food security, livelihoods and export earnings. The country is among the world’s leading rice exporters, and the sector contributes significantly to national income and employment. 

However, rice production systems face increasing sustainability challenges. Climate change is already affecting yields through rising temperatures, water scarcity and extreme weather events such as floods, which caused severe production losses in recent years. At the same time, conventional production practices—such as water-intensive irrigation, excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides, and inefficient resource management—contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, soil degradation and biodiversity loss. 

Sindh province, a major rice-producing region along the Indus River, is particularly vulnerable. Declining water availability, wetland degradation and pollution are placing pressure on ecosystems and livelihoods, while smallholder farmers and women face limited access to finance, technology and fair market opportunities. 

In response, the project targets rice production landscapes along the Indus River in Sindh, promoting sustainable and regenerative practices, restoring degraded systems and strengthening value chains to improve resilience, reduce environmental impacts and support rural livelihoods.

Our approach

The project adopts a value chain and landscape approach to transform rice production systems in an integrated and inclusive way.

It strengthens governance by improving coordination across institutions and aligning policies, strategies and planning processes to support a sustainable and gender-inclusive rice value chain. The project also enhances access to finance through innovative public-private mechanisms, including tailored financial and crop insurance services for farmers.

At the production and landscape level, the project promotes climate-smart and regenerative rice practices, including improved water and soil management and restoration of degraded agricultural land. It supports integrated landscape planning and monitoring systems, including a satellite-based rice monitoring and advisory system to inform decision-making.

The project further strengthens value chains by promoting sustainable sourcing, piloting climate-resilient processing and storage facilities, and supporting private sector engagement. It emphasizes inclusion by enhancing women’s participation, supporting entrepreneurship and improving livelihoods for smallholder farmers.

Knowledge generation, innovation and scaling are central to the approach, ensuring that lessons and tools are shared to support wider adoption of sustainable rice systems.

Sites

The project will be implemented in rice production landscapes across five districts in Sindh province, located along the Indus River.