The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) –

An Agroecological Approach toAgricultural Development and Environmental Conservation

AEM 6600 – Agroecosystems, Economic

Development and the EnvironmentProf. Norman Uphoff, CIIFAD

Agroecology – a alternative paradigm

to the Green Revolution?Inductive approach to agroecology:

• Experience in Madagascar

• Acquaintance with agroecology • Organization of Bellagio conference,

1999

•Concern with agricultural strategies

• Comparison of 20th and 21st century conditions for agricultural development

→ Concept of post-modern agriculture

Goals for rice sector in 21st century,

acc. to IRRI/DG ( 2004 -- Intl. Year of Rice )• Increase land productivity-- higher yield

• Higher water productivity -- crop per drop

• Make technology accessible for the poor

• More environmental friendliness

• More pest- and disease-resistance

• Less susceptibility to climatic stresses

• Better grain quality for consumers

• Greater profitability for farmers

SRI practices, now available, can help us meet all of these needs:

• Higher yields -- by 50 to 100%, or more

• Water reductions -- by 25 to 50%

• Capital expenditure – is not necessary, and neither is use of agrochemical inputs

• Resistance to pests and diseases and less vulnerability to drought and lodging

• Better grain quality

• Lower costs of production = higher income

Additional benefits of SRI practice:

• Time to maturity -- reduced by 1-2 weeks

• Milling outturn (polished rice) ~ 15% higher

• Other crops’ performance can also be improved by SRI concepts and practices, e.g., finger millet

• Human resource development for farmers, promoted through participatory approaches

• Diversification and modernization of smallholder agriculture to improve the economy

• Health benefits – less chemicals in food chain; reduced arsenic uptake; mosquito-borne diseases↓ nutritional improvements? women’s health better?

System of Finger Millet Intensificationon left; regular management of improvedvariety and of traditional variety on right,picture courtesy of PRADAN, Jharkhand

SRI Is NOT a Technology = 6 Core Ideas

1. Use young seedlings to preserve growth potential – although DIRECT SEEDING is becoming an option

2. Avoid trauma to the roots -- transplant quickly, shallow, not inverting root tips which halts growth

3. Give plants wider spacing -– one plant per hill and in square pattern to achieve “edge effect” everywhere

4. Keep paddy soil moist but unflooded –- soil should be mostly aerobic, not continuously saturated, and

5. Actively aerate the soil -- as much as possible6. Enhance soil organic matter as much as possible

First 3 practices stimulate plant growth, while the other practices enhance the growth and health of plants’ ROOTS and of soil BIOTA

Two Paradigms for Agriculture:

• GREEN REVOLUTION strategy was to:(a) Change the genetic potential of plants, and

(b) Increase the use of external inputs -- more water, more fertilizer and insecticides

• SRI (AGROECOLOGY) instead changes the management of plants, soil, water & nutrients:

(a) Promoting the growth of root systems, and

(b) Increasing the abundance and diversity of soil organisms to better enlist their benefits

The goal is to produce better PHENOTYPES

Takeo province,

Cambodia ; Rice plant

grown from a single seed

Nepal,MorangDistrict:

Single riceplant grown

with SRI methods

Rice field in Madagascar grown with SRI methods

Farmer in Timbuktu region of Mali

showing difference between regular and SRI plants

-- first-year yield of 8.98 t/ha

SRI field in Cuba – CFA Camilo Cienfuegos, Bahia Honda,14 t/ha – Los Palacios 9 cv. -- 2003

Farmer in Cuba with two plants of same variety (VN 2084) and same age (52

DAP)

SRI benefits have been demonstrated in 34 countries

in Asia, Africa, and Latin America

Before 1999: Madagascar1999-2000: China, Indonesia2000-01: Bangladesh, Cuba Cambodia, Gambia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Thailand 2002-03: Benin, Guinea, Mozambique, Peru

2004-05: Senegal, Mali, Pakistan, Vietnam2006: Burkina Faso, Bhutan, Iran, Iraq, Zambia2007: Afghanistan, Brazil 2008: Egypt, Rwanda, Congo, Ecuador, Costa Rica

> 1 million farmers/acres

As of 2009, SRI benefits have been validated in 35 countries of Asia, Africa, and

Latin America

SRI

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

IH H FH MR WR YRStage

Org

an d

ry w

eigh

t(g/

hill)

CK

I H H FH MR WR YR

Yellowleaf andsheathPanicle

Leaf

Sheath

Stem

47.9% 34.7%

Non-Flooding Rice Farming Technology in Irrigated Paddy FieldDr. Tao Longxing, China National Rice Research Institute, 2004

Lombok Province, Indonesia:Rice plants

same varietyand same age

Indonesia: Results of 9 seasons of on-farm comparative

evaluations of SRI by Nippon Koei, 2002-06

• No. of trials: 12,133• Total area covered: 9,429.1 hectares• Ave. increase in yield: 3.3 t/ha (78%)• Reduction in water requirements: 40%• Reduction in fertilizer use: 50%• Reduction in costs of production: 20%Bali, DS 2006: 24 farmers on 42 hectares: SRI + Longping hybrids: 13.3 t/ha vs. 8.4

INDONESIA: Rice plants in Nippon Koei office, Jakarta

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

• Natural ecosystems benefit from a lower water requirement for rice (WWF)

• Water quality better (less NO3) from reductions in application of N fertilizer • Soil quality and water quality are better with less use of agrochemicals • Less methane (major GHG) results from not flooding –still assessing effects on N2O

Incidence of Diseases and PestsVietnam National IPM Program: average of data from trials in 8 provinces, 2005-

06:Spring season Summer season

SRIPlots

Farmer

Plots

Differ-ence

SRIPlots

Farmer

Plots

Differ-ence

Sheath blight

6.7%

18.1%

63.0% 5.2%

19.8%

73.7%

Leaf blight

-- -- -- 8.6%

36.3%

76.5%

Small leaf folder *

63.4 107.7 41.1% 61.8 122.3 49.5%

Brown plant hopper *

542 1,440 62.4% 545 3,214 83.0%

AVERAGE

55.5% 70.7%

* Insects/m2

Sri Lanka: rice fields same variety, same irrigation system,& same drought -- left, conventional methods; right, SRI

Vietnam: FFS farmer in Dông Trù village – after typhoon

Measured Differences in Grain Quality

Conventional SRI Methods

Characteristic Methods (3 spacings) DifferenceChalky kernels (%)

39.89 – 41.07

23.62 – 32.47

↓30.7%

General chalkiness (%)

6.74 – 7.17 1.02 – 4.04 ↓65.7%

Milled rice outturn (%)

41.54 – 51.46

53.58 – 54.41

↑16.1%

Head milled rice (%)

38.87 – 39.99

41.81 – 50.84

↑17.5%

Paper by Prof. Ma Jun, Sichuan Agricultural University,presented at 10th conference on “Theory and Practice forHigh-Quality, High-Yielding Rice in China,” Haerbin, 8/2004

Use of wooden rake to mark

square pattern on field

Careful transplanting of single, young seedlings, widely spaced

Roller-marker devised by Lakshmana Reddy, East Godavari,AP, India, to save time in transplanting operations

Use of roller-marker in Punjab state of India

Cono-weeder re-designed byH. M. Premaratna, Sri Lanka,locally manufactured for $10

Weeding with

rotary hoe in

Madagascar

Weeder designed by Nong Sovann, Kampong Spreu province,Cambodia; built for $3, gets $20 increase in value of rice

Simplest weeder -- made byGovinda Dhakal, Indrapura,in Morang District, Nepal,

costing about 25¢ --4 persons can weed 1 acre inthe time that 10-12 personscan weed an acre by hand

SRI direct-seeder designed and built by L. Romero in Cuba;with transplanting he has gotten 14 t/ha; 40x40 cm spacingwas too wide; neighbor built 12-row seeder to be ox-drawn

Liu Zhibin, Meishan, Sichuan province, China, standing in raised-bed, zero-till SRI field; measured yield 13.4 t/ha;SRI yield of 16 t/ha in 2001 set yield record for Sichuan

AFGHANISTAN: SRI field in Baghlan Province, supported by Aga Khan Foundation Natural Resource Management

program

SRI field at 30 days

SRI plant 72 days after transplanting – 133

tillers

Yield calculated at 11.56 tons/ha

IRAQ: Comparison trials at Al-Mishkhab Rice Research Station, Najaf

Head of Agronomy Dept. at Amol research station,

Bahman Larijani – plans to include SRI in a new

$150 million World Bank project

IRAN: SRI roots

and normal, flooded rice roots: note difference in color as well as size

Miyatty Jannah, Crawak village,

East Java, Indonesia

4-day seedlingused by Miyatty,West Java, Indonesia

Planting 4-day

seedlings in West Java, Indonesia

Miyatty Jannah, Crawak village,

East Java, Indonesia

Agroecology – a alternative paradigm

to the Green Revolution•Different conditions in 21st century:

• Land per capita is reducing

• Water becoming less and less reliable

• Energy costs continue to rise, along with costs of production

•Environmental impacts to be mitigated

•Need to address poverty more directly

Can we keep doing ‘more of the same’ ?

Post-modern agriculture:successor to the Green

Revolution?• Differs from ‘post-modernism’

in the humanities and social sciences

• Not hostile to science

• Draws on the most contemporary scientific work in soil biology, soil ecology, epigenetics

• Post-modern agriculture should be the most modern agriculture

Factorial trials by CNRRI, 2004 and 2005

using two super-hybrid varieties --seeking to break ‘plateau’ limiting

yieldsStandard Rice

Mgmt• 30-day seedlings• 20x20 cm spacing• Continuous

flooding• Fertilization:

– 100% chemical

New Rice Mgmt (SRI)

• 20-day seedlings• 30x30 cm spacing• Alternate wetting

and drying (AWD)• Fertilization:

– 50% chemical, – 50% organic

Average super-rice yields (kg/ha) with new rice

management (SRI) vs.standard rice management

at different plant densities ha-1

0100020003000400050006000700080009000

10000

150,000 180,000 210,000

NRMSRM

‘Ascending Migration of Endophytic Rhizobia, from Roots and Leaves, inside Rice Plants and Assessment of Benefits to

Rice Growth Physiology’Rhizo-bium test strain

Total plant root

volume/pot (cm3)

Shoot dry weight/ pot (g)

Net photo-synthetic

rate (μmol-2 s-1)

Water utilization efficiency

Area (cm2) of flag leaf

Grain yield/ pot (g)

Ac-ORS571 210 ± 36A 63 ± 2A 16.42 ± 1.39A 3.62 ± 0.17BC 17.64 ± 4.94ABC 86 ± 5A

SM-1021 180 ± 26A 67 ± 5A 14.99 ± 1.64B 4.02 ± 0.19AB 20.03 ± 3.92A 86 ± 4A

SM-1002 168 ± 8AB 52 ± 4BC 13.70 ± 0.73B 4.15 ± 0.32A 19.58 ± 4.47AB 61 ± 4B

R1-2370 175 ± 23A 61 ± 8AB 13.85 ± 0.38B 3.36 ± 0.41C 18.98 ± 4.49AB 64 ± 9B

Mh-93 193 ± 16A 67 ± 4A 13.86 ± 0.76B 3.18 ± 0.25CD 16.79 ± 3.43BC 77 ± 5A

Control 130 ± 10B 47 ± 6C 10.23 ± 1.03C 2.77 ± 0.69D 15.24 ± 4.0C 51 ± 4C

Feng Chi et al.,Applied and Envir. Microbiology 71 (2005), 7271-7278

• Check out SRI website: http://ciifad.cornell.edu/sri/

• Email: ciifad@cornell.edu or ntu1@cornell.edu or

• Email: tefysaina.tnr@simicro.mg