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July 08, 2026

SRP Champion Trainer is a recognition awarded to outstanding SRP Authorized Trainers who demonstrate exceptional commitment to advancing the adoption of the SRP Standard. Beyond delivering high-quality training, Champion Trainers inspire others through their leadership, knowledge sharing, and dedication to building the capacity of farmers and value chain actors. They serve as role models within the SRP community, helping to strengthen local expertise, expand the reach of sustainable rice practices, and accelerate positive impact across the rice sector. Champion Trainers may be recognized for different achievements and contributions, reflecting the diverse ways they help drive SRP’s mission.

Being recognized as an SRP Champion Trainer is more than a badge of hard-earned dedication. It’s proof of a rarer skill altogether — the ability to take dense technical standards and turn them into something people can actually use. So today, let’s slow down for a moment and get to know the person behind that skill.

Meet Le Trong Lu, an SRP Training Specialist at Peterson Services Vietnam — and someone whose journey into agriculture started long before any classroom or certificate. As a child, he was captivated simply watching plants grow, “from a tiny seed, to a young plant, then flowering and fruiting.” That quiet curiosity eventually blossomed into a 14-year career spanning Organic Agriculture, GlobalG.A.P., and SRP — through training, auditing, and hands-on capacity-building with farmers and businesses across Vietnam.

With more than 14 years of experience in agriculture, Le Trong Lu has become one of the most trusted voices in sustainable rice training across Vietnam. As an SRP Training Specialist at Peterson Services Vietnam and a lecturer at Yersin University of Da Lat, he has spent his career helping farmers, businesses, and stakeholders adopt more sustainable agricultural practices through the SRP Standard and Performance Indicators (SPI), Chain of Custody (CoC), and Internal Management Systems (IMS). His dedication was recently recognized when he was named one of SRP’s first Champion Trainers, having delivered the highest number of SRP trainings of any trainer in 2025.

For Lu, rice isn’t just a subject he teaches — it’s personal. As one of the world’s largest rice-producing countries, Vietnam’s shift toward sustainability isn’t an abstract goal to him; it’s something he lives out daily, both professionally and at his own dinner table. “Rice is also a staple food for my family and me,” he shares, “so this work is not only part of my profession — it is also something that is personally meaningful to me.”

Training as a Two-Way Journey

Ask him about his favorite part of training, and he won’t talk about lecturing — he’ll talk about listening. Some of his most memorable moments as a trainer have come from hearing farmers describe, in their own words, how they’ve put sustainable practices into action. “Training is a two-way learning process,” he explains, “where both the trainer and the participants can learn from each other.” True to that philosophy, Lu doesn’t expect participants to memorize every detail from his sessions. Instead, he sees himself as offering a map — trusting each person to explore the rest of the journey through their own real-world experience.

Beyond the Training Room

When he’s not training the next generation of SRP practitioners, Lu’s curiosity simply finds new places to grow — through reading, tending to his ornamental plants, catching up with friends, or unwinding with a good documentary. “I believe that life is about continuous movement,” he shares. “Working is one of the ways I keep that movement going.”

It’s proof that curiosity, once planted, never really stops growing.

So what does it actually mean to be named a Champion Trainer? For Lu, it’s simple: recognition that his contributions have mattered — and a quiet source of pride, knowing his work has helped move sustainable rice production forward, one training at a time.

When he’s not training the next generation of SRP practitioners, you’ll likely find him buried in a good book, tending to ornamental plants, or losing an evening to a good documentary — proof that curiosity, once planted, never really stops growing.

Now it’s your turn to learn from him directly. Join Lu’s upcoming Info Session on 9 July 2026, and discover the same passion and practical wisdom that earned him the title of SRP Champion Trainer.