<p>Rice is a critical global staple, yet its intensive cultivation generates significant environmental pressures, thereby creating tension between food security and ecological health. Despite growing interest in sustainable agriculture, empirical evidence on how farm-level practices align with international sustainability standards remains limited, particularly in production regions where integrated sustainability assessments remain scarce, such as Türkiye. This study addresses this gap by assessing the sustainability of rice production in Samsun, Türkiye, using the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) standard. Primary data were collected from 166 rice farms through face-to-face surveys to evaluate economic, environmental, and social performance indicators. The results reveal a clear sustainability imbalance: economic performance was highest, particularly among larger farms, while environmental sustainability recorded the lowest scores across all farm-size groups. Inefficient nitrogen and phosphorus use and high greenhouse gas emissions were identified as the primary barriers. Farm size was positively associated with economic and social sustainability, though environmental sustainability did not follow this pattern, suggesting that environmental performance may be more strongly shaped by management practices and technical capacity than by farm scale. Policy interventions should prioritise resource-use efficiency and support environmentally friendly practices through scale-sensitive measures that take into account differences in mechanization, education, land structure, and infrastructure across farm types. Improving the sustainability of rice farming in Türkiye requires not only scale-sensitive policies but also targeted efforts to strengthen environmental performance alongside economic viability.</p>