Sustainability criteria for rice farmer practices based on environmental, economic and social dimensions

The rice industry is vital to Malaysia's food security and sustainability. However, rice farmers in Malaysia still face environmental degradation and socioeconomic challenges. Various sustainability criteria have been developed locally and internationally to address the challenges; however, context-specific criteria for rice farmers in Malaysia remain limited. Thus, the study proposes to finalise 27 sustainability criteria for rice farmer practices based on five agricultural sustainability standards or frameworks: the SAFA, MSPO, RSPO, MyGAP, and SRP. A qualitative approach was employed, utilising both online and face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 17 experts in sustainability and rice cultivation practices. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. The study findings show ten environmental criteria are zero burning practices, water resources, pre-planting, harvesting and post-harvesting, efficiency of energy use, waste management and disposal, planting material, pest input control, fertilizer input and species diversity, five economic criteria are traceability, stability of production, stability of supply, liquidity, value creation and five social criteria are quality of life, capacity development, right to use land, employment condition and workplace safety was finalised. This finding provided context-specific and foundation sustainability criteria for enhancing environmental conservation practices, economic resilience, and social well-being of rice farmers in Malaysia.