The “Thailand – Low-Emission Rice” NAMA Support Project (NSP), or “Thai Rice” for short, supports a shift to low-emission rice production in Thailand by capacitating farmers to implement low-emission rice farming practices, supporting entrepreneurs in providing mitigation services to farmers, and promoting low-emission production at the policy level.
On this account, AMBERO and Oxford Policy Management undertook a mid-term evaluation and learning exercise (ELE) on the progress of the NSP, between June and September 2021.
Below are some of the key findings of the ELE:
- The NSP has promoted proven low-emission agricultural practices and technologies that have additional co-benefits in climate change adaptation.
- The NSP is well aligned with the national government’s needs. The Thai government has adopted GHG data measurement supported by the NSP.
- NSP is experiencing delays in the implementation of both financial and technical components. Lengthy contractual discussions and such external factors as Covid-19 and droughts led to an interruption in the activities of the NSP.
- Evidence shows that the NSP is likely to contribute to the NAMA Facility Theory of Change. There are early signs indicating the NSP enables systematic change which will catalyse additional GHG savings.
- There are some early signs of the NSP’s approach being mainstreamed into the relevant government agencies.
The following lessons learnt, and recommendations were derived by the evaluators of the ELE for future NSPs in the rice production sector:
- Reaching the targeted number of farmers can require more time than anticipated. A newly introduced technology in agriculture is more likely to take more time for uptake. Also, younger farmers could be easier to be convinced to participate.
- The level of the farmers’ financial literacy should be considered to enable their access to finance. The financial literacy of the farmers should be assessed properly while the possibility of roll-out activities on financial literacy could be considered in parallel.
- Projects on access to finance in the agricultural sector should be undertaken based on a thorough analysis of the credit worthiness of farmers and service providers and their willingness to take loans.
Following the main findings and recommendations of the ELE, the TSU has compiled a management response to address the key points that were raised.
The management response and the mid-term ELE report are available in the Knowledge & Learning Hub.
