Rice Kit $29

Rice is the primary staple food for much of the world's population. It's been cultivated for more than 10,000 years in Asia and is ingrained into the culture of billions of people. In some languages, the words for "food" and "rice" are interchangeable.

Why Help Is Needed

In many of the world's rice-growing regions, farmers work long hours to plant and cultivate their rice paddy, only to face declining crop yields on increasingly-marginalized land. Their efforts barely feed their family and produce very little income, giving rise to hunger and poverty.

Mercy Corps In Action

In places like Sri Lanka and Indonesia, Mercy Corps works with traditional farmers to increase crop yield through improved agricultural practices that also benefit the environment. One of these methods, called SRI in Sri Lanka and legowo in Indonesia, utilizes a labor-intensive method of planting that uses half the seed but produces twice the rice paddy. This innovation leads not only to more food for the household, but also more rice to sell and rice seed to plant the next growing season.

Kanthi's Story

Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

Since her husband died, Kanthi has been in charge of cultivating three-and-a-half acres of rice paddy on Sri Lanka’s southern coast. She relies on the harvest to sustain her and her two school-age daughters.

This season, she’s trying something new: a cultivation method that uses fewer seeds, less water and no pesticides.

Mercy Corps sponsored trainings for Kanthi and other farmers, and provided her with seeds and tools to try out the new method on half an acre. She expects that land to yield about 2,000 pounds of uncooked rice — twice what she might have harvested the traditional way. The high-quality rice will fetch premium prices at the market.

But Kanthi won’t sell every kernel: “Because we don’t use chemicals or fertilizers, this rice is very good for my family’s own consumption.”

Rice Kit $29

Buy this card ›