report on a visit to the philippines to review sri progress

on May 3-5. (I was already planning to attend, having been invited to attend as an observer by
FAO which convenes the commission.)
Biksham Gujja’s suggestion for establishing an international expert commission to review
various water-saving technologies and approaches, including SRI, will be one of the
recommendations presented to the IRC. There was widespread agreement that elevating watersaving
in the rice sector as an international concern is warranted. Biksham’s proposal that a 20%
reduction is possible and desirable makes a lot of sense. But this will require some concerted
effort from many institutions and disciplines, which hopefully this meeting will have launched.
That evening, there was an informal discussion among participants from India and myself on
possible next steps to move SRI work forward in that country. Dr. Subbiah invited me to attend
the all-India rice research conference scheduled to meet in Hyderabad mid-April, to make a short
presentation on SRI, but that will not be possible given my schedule. He said that he would try to
get a panel or some presentation on SRI on the program of the Second International Rice
Conference planned to convene in New Delhi in early October.
Dr. Gujja was interested in having WWF work with DRR to put together a publication that
summarizes SRI research and results across India, to be available by October for the
International Rice Conference in New Delhi. It as agreed that this would be an important
contribution to further understanding and use of SRI opportunities, and WWF will take the lead
on this. WASSAN will continue developing effective communication and cooperation among
NGOs and with government agencies and farmer organizations. K. V. Rao will encourage
initiatives within the farming community to get government, scientific and other support for SRI
utilization given the growing urgency of coping with diminishing water supplies and increasing
uncertainty.
Whether much will come from the international-level initiatives remains to be seen. Many such
efforts are made and not many result in much impact on the ground. But strengthening of
cooperation among partners in India who have capacity to work at the grassroots could be one of
the most specific and sustainable outcomes from the workshop. Our colleague Shuichi Sato had
had to leave that afternoon for some Nippon Koei discussions in Manila, so he could not
participate in the evening discussion. Obet was still there, and we left together early next
morning to return to the Metro Manila area ourselves.
March 9: DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, AND SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
NETWORK OF NSSA/CBCP
We had an appointment to meet with the Undersecretary of Agriculture Segfredo Serrano at 9
this morning to discuss further government support for SRI. We arrived at the Department of
Agriculture headquarters in Quezon City just on time and were joined by Gani Serrano (no
relation) from PRRM. En route to the Undersecretary’s office, we ran into DA Undersecretary
for Finance Edmund Sana, who was leaving for a budget hearing. He reminded us that he had
attended the field day (in 2002) when NIA’s director for the Caraga Region in Mindanao, Bong
Salazar, did a public crop-cutting of his first SRI crop. This gave an impressive yield of 8.9 t/ha,
using entirely organic methods. (Salazar operates a chicken farm that produces large supplies of
organic matter.) We discussed how the governor of Bohol Province, who also serves as president
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