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
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