2.4.1: Proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture

Definition
SDG indicator 2.4.1 is computed as the area of productive land and sustainable agriculture divided by the agricultural land area.
 * "Area of productive land and sustainable agriculture" captures the three dimensions of sustainable production: environmental, economic and social. It corresponds to agricultural area of the farms that satisfy sub-indicators selected across all three dimensions.


 * "Agricultural land area" denotes agricultural land area managed by agricultural holdings, defined as the sum of agricultural area utilized by agricultural holdings that are owned (excluding rented-out), rented-in, leased, sharecropped or borrowed. State or communal land used by farm holdings is not included.

Rice Impacts
Rice is one of the largest contributors in the world in terms of anthropogenic agricultural methane emissions, which has 84 times the 20-year global warming potential, according to the IPCC. In fact, rice has the worst greenhouse gas footprint of all food commodities. Out of all the emissions, 92% of the volume can be attributed to flooded rice fields. Global estimates put flooded rice emissions at up to 3.34 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. Flooding rice fields is a very common practice that is unsustainable in the long run; rice is typically grown in bunded fields continously flooded up a week before harvest. Continuous flooding worsens the water scarcity problem; 28 million hectares of irrigated rice under high or extremely high water stress, and by 2040, it will increase to 34 million hectares.

Though unsustainable rice production looks like a driver of climate change, rice itself can be viewed as a victim of climate change as well. Rice is a victim of water scarcity, as fresh irrigable water is reduced due to overuse, climate changed induced droughts, and saltwater intrusions. Saltwater intrusions in Gambia and Vietnam have affected the productivity of the rice plant, discouraging farmers from planting rice. To produce one kilogram of rice, 3000-5000 litres of irrigated water can be withdrawn. The problem can be seen in Indonesia as well, as sea levels are expected to rise by 70 cm by 2100, threatening to flood low-lying farmland

Pesticide usage is constantly brought up in discussions about unsustainable input use. Farmers are exposed to the risk of unintentional poisoning, and traders can be hit by restrictions on maximum residue levels if pesticides are used irresponsibly. Farmers in Bangladesh are already seeing contamination in their groundwater, and Indonesian farmers are experiencing signs and symptoms of neurobehavioral, respiratory, and intestinal problems. In fact, indiscriminate use of pesticides may intensify pest attacks over time when it disrupts natural pest control in the area

Extensive fertilizer use as well causes problems with the soil, and can lower productivity over time. Global rice fields receive about 15% (or 24.3 million tons) of global fertilizer use; health and environmental impacts of excessive fertilizer use are compounded by typically low use efficiencies; poor application timing can result in only 20-40% or less of applied nitrogen fertilizer captured by the crop. In Vietnam, rice is 65% of all fertilizer usage as of 2017. The overuse of N-fertilizers can increase acidity of the soil and reduce fertility of the soil by causing imbalances in micronutrients. Like pesticides, organic fertilizers like manure can also run-off into the water supply and cause pollution.

Overlaps with the SRP Instruments
The SRP standards define what is a sustainable rice cultivation practice to begin identifying conventional versus sustainable area. If a comparison is made between the SRP Instruments and the SDG 2.4.1 Sub-indicators, the SRP standards and performance indicators provide almost-complete coverage over the sub-indicators, save for the topic of land tenure. However, the SRP projects do track whether farmers own and/or rent lend, and ownership is proven only if they possess the relevant documents.