Organic Rice Farming

My internship is wrapping up this week, and I’m behind on my blogging! I’ll post on a few of the highlights
over the past months. 

Their product

My last post was a few weeks ago about our visit to a waste management business in Bali; just before that we went to visit a rice farming business on the eastern end of the island of Java. The company helps farmers increase their income by guiding them through the transition from farming conventional white rice to organic red rice and facilitating access to lower cost inputs and premium prices for their organic crop. The bulk of our time there was spent completing the due diligence with our investment partner by talking to the team and all of their stakeholders.

With the farmer's family

We met with one of their farmers/ farmer coordinators to talk about his experiences with organic rice farming and with the business. He was clearly passionate about organic rice and about the benefits of eating red rice instead of white rice (he specifically mentioned ‘keeping you regular’). It was great seeing his passion and how he had used his increased income to benefit his family.

The management team is a group of recent graduates from a top agricultural college here who are really sharp and committed to social impact, but could use help on the business side. One of the team members was in our car giving us some background on the board member we were about to meet. What he failed to mention, and what surprised us all, was the first line out of the board member’s mouth – that he was that team member’s father. The look of confusion and shock around the room were priceless.

Food wise, we had chicken and rice for almost every meal for 5 days – needless to say we were itching for anything else by the time we got to Bali.

With the team

One of their rice fields

Rice being dried

Rice milling unit