Introduction to Opportunities with the

System of Rice Intensification (SRI)

CNRRI Workshop, HangzhouFebruary 28, 2010

Prof. Norman UphoffCornell University

System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is Not a

Technology• SRI derives from experience working with farmers in Madagascar during 1960s-1970

• SRI was synthesized in the early 1980s

• SRI capitalizes upon potentials that have always existed in the rice plant

• By changing the way that plants, soil, water and nutrients are managed, SRI methods more productive PHENOTYPES from most rice GENOTYPES - old & new

System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is Ideas

and Insights• SRI started with irrigated rice; but now adapted to rainfed/upland/unirrigated rice

• Paddy yields in Eastern India of 7 t/ha ave.

• Yields in Northern Myanmar are 4-6 t/ha

• Yields in Southern Philippines were 7 t/ha

• SRI methods are also now being adapted for other crops: wheat, millet, sugar cane, pulses, teff, legumes, etc. successfully

• SRI is concerned with MANAGEMENT

SRI Concepts and Methods Are Oriented to Better

Phenotypes• How to create most favorable growing conditions for the rice plant?• SRI practices reflect these principles:

• Rice is not an aquatic plant – it grows better in well-drained soils, with ‘minimum of water’

• Crowding affects rice plants adversely -- just as it affects all other plants badly

• Soil fertility depends crucially on soil biota - success depends on having LIVING SOIL

These understandings all affect PHENOTYPE

I NDI A: Finger Millet I ntensificationon lef t; regular management of improved

variety and of traditional variety on right

MADAGASCAR: Rice field grown with SRI methods

CAMBODIA: Rice plant

grown from single seed in

Takeo province

INDONESIA:Single-seed SRI rice plantVariety: CiherangFertile tillers: 223Sampoerna CSR Program, Malang, E. Java, 2009

Since SRI is Not a Technology,It is Continually Evolving

• SRI is a work in progress, not yet finished

• SRI is being continuously improved• Particularly by farmer innovations

• SRI is not a thing – best as an adjective

• Certainly not a single thing – many versions

• SRI is open access – no patents, no IPR

• SRI aims to increase productivity from available resources - land, labor, water, capital

Status of SRI: As of 1999

Known and practiced only in Madagascar

Before 1999: Madagascar1999-2000: China, Indonesia2000-01: Bangladesh, Cuba, Laos, Cambodia, Gambia, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Thailand 2002-03: Benin, Guinea, Peru, Moz 2004-05: Senegal, Mali, Vietnam, Pakistan

2006: Burkina Faso, Bhutan, Iran, Iraq, Zambia2007: Afghanistan, Brazil 2008: Rwanda, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana2009: Timor Leste, Malaysia2010: Kenya; Sabah? Panama? Solomon Islands? DPRK?

2010: SRI benefits have now been validated in

38 countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America