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

to himself, he was taught differently, he was caught in a
mindset.
SRI a Natural Progression of
Experimentation
Mr. Pravash Satpathy first heard about SRI in 2004, while
reading the November issue of Indian farming. 29 As he
mentions, at the time he was already mentally quite prepared
to accept the philosophy and technology of SRI because he
had been experimenting along a similar line with mustard
plants since 1985. At the time he read the article on SRI
everything fell in the right place and unlike other farmers
and research scientists he recognised the possibility. Given
his experience with mushroom and his love for innovation,
Satpathy immediately chose to try it out.
He did not receive training on SRI from anybody; he read a
few articles and followed his intuition. SRI, according to
Mr. Satpathy, is a low density plant system which depends
on the individual capacity of the plant. Mr. Satpathy has
been practicing SRI in the last four to five years and has
tried out SRI in various ways. He tried out different spacings
varying from 25x12.5 cm. to 40x40 cm. Normally he uses a
spacing of 25x20 cm. for long duration varieties, while using
20x20 cm. for short duration varieties. He transplanted 10
day old saplings as well as 45 day old saplings, used both
single and double seedlings, and practiced both organic and
inorganic cultivation.
Results
Mr. Satpathy tried out a great variety of practices, differing
in single or double seedlings, the date of transplantation
ranging from 10 to 45 days, differences in spacing ranging
from 23x23 cm. to 40x40 cm, practicing organic as well
as inorganic cultivation, and trying out many different
varieties. Starting with Rabi 2004, continuing in Kharif 2005
and vastly increasing the experiment during Kharif 2006 and
Rabi 2006, the results clearly show that the yields improved
after being more acquainted to the system. Appendix 9.1
gives a good indication of the meticulous experimentation
that Satpathy undertook and what characteristics he
was comparing the various trials for. Both in organic and
inorganic practices the highest yields were gained during
Kharif 2006.
With organic farming the highest yields (0.78 kg/m 2 ) were
attained by placing one seedling per hill of the variety
called IET – 5656, and by transplanting 16 day old saplings
– the youngest he tried. He tried out transplanting up to
30 days, but the later the transplantation was done the
lower were the resulting yields. Also, in organic farming,
he experienced a remarkable difference between single and
double seedlings, with yields from placing one seed at a
time being considerably higher. Whereas the highest yield
with single seedlings was 0.78 kg/m 2 , the highest yield with
double seedlings was only 0.485 kg/m 2 .
In inorganic farming his highest yield was 0.93 kg/m 2 ,
transplanting two 23-day old seedlings per hill and using
a fertiliser at a rate of 57 – 25 – 30. This yield was quite
higher than organic farming, although it must be said that
the results of inorganic farming varied a lot throughout the
seasons, with the lowest yield being 0.45 kg/m 2 . In general
the plants that were transplanted late, 40-45 days did not
yield well.
Constraints
In spite of his best efforts, Mr. Satpathy has not yet been able
to get a yield of 205 grams from a single rice plant. One of
his main concerns is whether the soil is depleting nutrients
after high production. At a certain point Mr. Satpathy was
applying five to six t/ha green manure, but even with this
amount of manure the yield did not increase. In other words,
he found the nutrients were reducing, no matter how much
green manure he added.
One of the major problems he encountered was the control
of grasses and weeds, which flourish in SRI fields. Also
labour can be a problem. First of all, Mr. Satpathy thinks that
practicing SRI will require relatively much labour, which will
increase costs. Second, labour can be a problem because
it might not be available at all. In addition to the earlier
mentioned problems in his region with most labourers
giving first priority to their own fields, in Rabi Mr. Satpathy
encounters this labour problem again because during the
month of January a local festival called ‘Makar Sankranti’
is celebrated in his region. During this time, people do not
work for 15-20 days. This leads to a late start in Rabi, which
in turn affects the production. In his particular context, this
makes Kharif the preferred season to practice SRI.
29
Kumar, D. & Shivay, Y.S. (2004). System of rice intensification. Indian Farming. November: 18-21.
Innovating into SRI 59