Tilda has expanded its sustainable basmati rice programme to 3,840 farms across northern India, marking a significant scale-up in efforts to reduce water use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across its supply chain.
The milestone, detailed in the company’s newly published 2025 Impact Report, reflects a shift from pilot projects to mainstream adoption of low-emissions rice-growing practices, delivering measurable environmental benefits alongside improved farm economics.
“We are now seeing the full impact of what can be achieved when sustainable practices are adopted at scale,” said managing director Jean-Philippe Laborde. “Farmers are benefiting from higher yields and lower input costs, while we are delivering meaningful reductions in emissions and water use.”
From pilot to scale: AWD becomes standard practice
Tilda’s programme centres on Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), a water-saving irrigation technique that is now embedded across its basmati supply chain.
The growth has been rapid:
- 2021: 50 farms
- 2023: 1,268 farms
- 2025: 3,840 farms across 15,314 hectares
The expansion represents a step-change in adoption, positioning AWD as a standard production method rather than a niche sustainability intervention.
Unlike traditional rice farming, which keeps fields permanently flooded, AWD allows fields to dry intermittently, reducing water usage and limiting the anaerobic conditions that generate methane.
Material gains on emissions, water and yields
The environmental and economic outputs of the programme, measured across three growing seasons, are significant:
- Up to 45% reduction in methane emissions
- 36% lower CO₂e emissions per tonne of rice
- 36.9 billion litres of irrigation water saved annually
- 7% increase in crop yields
- 7.5% higher farmer incomes
- More than 20% reduction in fertiliser use per tonne of rice
For Tilda, the results reinforce a central thesis: that sustainability and productivity gains can be delivered simultaneously when interventions are designed with farm-level economics in mind.
“The AWD approach changes how rice is grown,” said Laborde. “It reduces methane emissions, cuts water and energy use, and creates more efficient growing conditions.”
Farmer economics at the centre of adoption
Crucially, the programme’s expansion has been underpinned by its commercial viability for participating farmers.
By lowering irrigation costs and reducing fertiliser use while improving yields, AWD has delivered a positive return on investment at farm level, helping to drive uptake.
This alignment of environmental and economic outcomes is increasingly seen as essential to achieving large-scale behavioural change in agriculture, where adoption remains tightly tied to profitability and risk.
The next challenge: nitrous oxide emissions
Having made substantial progress on methane reduction, Tilda is now turning its attention to a more complex issue: nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions linked to fertiliser use.
While AWD reduces methane, the intermittent drying of soils can stimulate microbial activity that releases nitrous oxide – a potent greenhouse gas – potentially offsetting 10-15% of methane savings.
“This is where sustainability becomes more complex,” Laborde said. “Even the most effective solutions can have unintended consequences that require further innovation.”
Bio-fertilisers and soil biology under evaluation
To address this, Tilda has partnered with the University of Cambridge Crop Science Centre to test the use of bio-fertilisers containing arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi.
These naturally occurring fungi enhance plant nutrient uptake, strengthen root systems and reduce dependency on synthetic fertilisers
Early on-farm trials in northern India show 5-15% higher yields compared to synthetic fertiliser-only systems and improved plant vigour and resilience.
Dr Emily Servanté, a postdoctoral researcher involved in the programme, said the results are “extremely encouraging”, particularly in demonstrating the biological compatibility of AM fungi with basmati rice systems.
Fertiliser efficiency becomes strategic priority
The focus on fertiliser reduction reflects broader pressures across global agriculture. Tilda noted fertiliser production remains energy-intensive and highly dependent on natural gas
Recent geopolitical shocks and input volatility have exposed vulnerabilities in supply chains, making nutrient efficiency both an environmental and economic priority.
“Improving nutrient use efficiency is not just an environmental priority, but an economic and food security imperative,” Laborde said.
Scaling sustainability across global supply chains
Tilda’s expansion to 3,840 farms signals that sustainable rice production is moving beyond pilots into mainstream implementation. But it also highlights the next frontier is tackling the more complex emissions trade-offs embedded within agricultural systems.
Tilda’s experience suggests that practice-based interventions (like AWD) can deliver rapid gains, but system-level optimisation (including fertiliser management) is required to capture full benefits.
“We have made significant progress, but we are not standing still,” Laborde said. “This is about building a model of rice production that is not only sustainable, but resilient and scalable for the future.”
