SRI in Orissa - Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture ...

CHAPTER 1
C. Shambu Prasad, Koen Beumer and Debasis Mohanty
Towards a Learning Alliance - SRI in Orissa
Last year while documenting the innovation history of SRI
in India we had just a couple of paragraphs to report on
the SRI work in Orissa. 1 A year later as we attempt to take
stock at a time that coincides with Nuakhai, the unique
harvest festival being celebrated in Orissa (especially the
Western regions), we seem to be celebrating Nuakhai with
a rich harvest of experiences throughout the state. This
volume is a tribute to the efforts of farmers, researchers,
civil society organisations and government agencies that
have made this possible. The traditional celebration of the
harvest continues in most parts of the state even as its
significance seems to have eroded with changing cropping
patterns (few farmers choose to grow short duration
varieties of the kind that makes new rice possible in the
month of Bhadrab) and now even climate change. 2 Only
seven of the last twenty five years have had normal or
more than normal rainfall in the state. Variable patterns
of rainfall in a state where rainfed paddy is the main crop
has indeed put the livelihoods of a large number of small
and marginal farmers under severe stress. Does SRI seem
to offer a ray of hope to these farmers so that they could
look forward to Nuakhai in the years to come?
From what appeared to be just few farmers trying out SRI in
Orissa a year back there has been a consistent increase and
spread across the state despite lack of any governmental
support. The spread and its prospects warrant a fuller
account of the experiences and insights of the practitioners
of SRI who have made this possible. This volume intends to
present these rich experiences on SRI and explore ways of
strengthening an emerging ‘learning alliance’. The idea of
the volume came out of the first state level workshop on
SRI held on June 23, 2007 where most of the contributors
spoke, for the first time, about SRI. The workshop was
unique in many ways. The Department of Agriculture,
Government of Orissa, partnered in this workshop with
four other organisations even as it was seeking to launch
its own plan for rice in Kharif 2007. The event had over
80 participants including tribal farmers from the remote
Koraput to resource persons sharing insights from Tripura
and Andhra Pradesh. The event was a step in redefining
boundaries and an open invitation for participants to
learn and share from each other. It is not often that one
witnesses Kharif plans of the government being open to
ideas from civil society organisations, researchers keen to
share their insights and state governments openly seeking
knowledge from outside the state. The one day workshop
proved too short. The participants had so much to say,
discuss and debate. 3
In a follow up they readily agreed to share and build a
farmers database on SRI during Kharif 2007. The response
to writing up their experiences was extremely encouraging
and participants agreed voluntarily to contribute their
experiences on SRI with detailed narratives on how they
got involved in it, their results, areas for improvement and
even what needs to be done to take SRI further.
The experiences that follow this introductory chapter reflect
the concerns and aspirations of the actors and we have tried
to maintain them with minimal editing of content and this
reflects in the diversity of perspectives among the actors. In
this introductory paper we hope to provide a context for the
SRI efforts in Orissa. This paper is divided into four parts. In
part I we speak about the overall context of rice cultivation
in Orissa (of which Nuakhai is a part) and the crying need for
change by most actors involved. In part II we broadly sketch
the background of SRI in India and in part III we situate the
SRI work in Orissa within the overall context of rice in the
state. We show how SRI in Orissa has evolved in the last
three years. Finally in Part IV we speak about the emerging
concept of a ‘learning alliance’ and why SRI in Orissa and
1
Shambu Prasad, C. 2006. System of Rice Intensification in India. Innovation History and Institutional Challenges. Patancheru & Bhubaneswar: WWF and Xavier
Institute of Management.
2
The Water Initiatives Orissa has just launched a campaign to generate public awareness on climate change. In thirteen years more than 7 percent of total
geographical area has turned barren and unfit for agriculture. WIO hopes to collect 5000 responses to the issue of climate change in the state to feed into the
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) meeting in Bali in December 2007.
3
For a flavour of the workshop and the participant profiles please visit http://www.wassan.org/sri/documents/Orissa_Dialogue_Report.pdf.
Towards a Learning Alliance - SRI in Orissa 1