Revised proceedings - The System of Rice Intensification - Cornell ...

The large-scale expansion of SRI in Tripura was possible due the mass movement that emerged to support
SRI by the State Government and Panchayati Raj institutions with active farmer support. For promotion of
SRI, the state government contributed a little less than 50% of the cost in the demonstration plots.
In the introductory part of his paper, Dr. Majumder presented how better rice cultivation has evolved
through relentless efforts of farmers just through their observations and experimentation. He lamented that
“contemporary irrigated rice cultivation has become quite uniform with a standard set of practices,” preferred
by scientists who were pleased with high external inputs. But in recent years there has been a diminished yield
growth rate reaching a plateau.
Seeing this decreasing yield rate and plateau for further increases underscores the importance of SRI at the
moment. With all good intentions and satisfied with a few decades of increase in yield, the Green Revolution
has ignored indigenous rice varieties, has increased external input use and farmers' financial dependence, and
all this has affected bio-diversity and is contributing to adverse climate change impacts.
Dr. Majumder pointed out that “SRI is quite different from the approach of the Green Revolution in that:
a) It is not a seed-based approach,
b) It makes reductions in inputs such as seeds, water, fertilizers, and labour and yet gives more yield, and
c) It originated outside of the established scientific institutions.”
Farmers‟ experience has proven that SRI brings in higher resource-efficient productivity, which is good for
the farmers, the soil and the rice plant itself. All the participants were impressed and regretted his absence
because they would have liked further clarifications from him on SRI success in Tripura State.
A gist of the paper submitted by Dr. Majumder titled “System of Rice Intensification (SRI) – A Traditional
Method of Rice Cultivation of India?” was also presented by Prof. Husain. The main theme of the paper was
that a method of single seedling planting of paddy, close to the present-day SRI method of cultivation was
developed by farmers of Tamil Nadu, India, about a hundred years ago. This practice, along with another
farmer-devised version of the single-seeding practice, called Gaza planting, which involved a detailed package
of practices, was also introduced during the first decade of the twentieth century. Main features included
single seedling planting, row planting, use of organic manure, weeding, and economic water management.
These practices were closely similar to the present SRI practice. However, one concept of SRI, namely early
transplanting was not there in this practice; and the concept of soil aeration was also not well understood. The
method had resulted in substantial increase in yield. He mentioned that after two to three decades of its
introduction, these systems apparently seemed to have gradually given way to somewhat different practices,
the reasons for which are unknown. However, he mentioned that “seeing these historic „echoes‟ could make it
relatively easier to promote SRI today. The intention of this paper is not to suggest that SRI originated in
India. Rather we wanted to document that many of its practices have been utilised in India long ago, and
farmers were able to use them quite successfully. The paper does not diminish the importance of SRI but
rather shows that it is grounded in biological potentials and realities that have existed in the rice genome for
millennia.” (This interesting paper is attached in Annex 2.1 (b) for the benefit of the readers.)
4.3 A.B.S. Sarker’s SRI Research at BRRI
Abu Bakar Siddique Sarker, a Senior Scientific Officer of BRRI, briefly narrated preliminary findings from his
Ph.D. research study conducted on SRI production and management practices during three consecutive Boro
seasons.
The study found that SRI methods result in a proven increase in rice yield. Average SRI yields were around 2
tons/ha higher than conventional yield. He briefly stated the different advantages of the SRI practice, and his
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