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

decided to go ahead with it. I had not eye-witnessed
any SRI-based cultivation, nor had any formal training,
but its high yield potential and its new method was very
interesting. I just applied my own ideas and understanding
for the experiment. After 35 years of farming experience I
took up SRI as a challenge. I chose a small field of 0.27 acres
and started implementing SRI in Kharif 2005.
Kharif 2005
I followed the main SRI principles in my land. They included
transplanting young seedlings, single seedling per hill, gap
between plant to plant at 25 x25, and alternate wetting and
drying instead of flooding the field. Because the seeds and
roots of the seedlings should not be submerged in water I
did not prepare a specific seedbed. I just used a part of the
seedbed that I also used for conventional rice cultivation.
As a practicing organic farmer I usually prepare the seedbed
very carefully with bountiful of manure and paying close
attention to the water management. Also with the main
field preparation I just went ahead as I did usually, paying
more attention to proper levelling. I did not canalise the
fields as they are only small in size, and made sure the bed
remained un-flooded.
The variety I used for the first SRI experiment was Seshadri
from Maharastra. I only used this because other fine varieties
were not available during that time. I transplanted the
seedlings after 11 days. At the time I was not yet aware of
more technical components, so I neither marked nor measured
the root length. With proper guidance to the labourers the
transplanting happened very carefully. Every 10 to 15 days I
wetted the field, keeping it wet and moist. Nearly 50% of the
water requirement for traditional farming was saved.
I used oil cake as fertiliser as I normally do, and I applied
manure in a regular interval of 10 days to get the
nitrogen properly. I did not feel it was necessary to apply
any pesticide, for which I usually take arecanut leaves.
I did notice some pests in the field, but the disease did
not affect other plants because of the distance between
the plants. Moreover, since I practice organic farming,
the chances of pests are very much less as the plants
usually are healthy. The biggest problem at the time was
weeding. I could not arrange a weeder and carried out
manual weeding only once after 30 days. Doing it again
would have been too expensive, so I let it be. This was a
mistake, as the weeds were comparatively higher than in
traditional crops.
At the harvesting stage Mr. Niranjan Nayak, an Agriculture
Scientist from KVK, Bhanjanagar, Ganjam, came with his
team to note the yield rate of the SRI paddy. Mr. Nayak
and his team estimated the yield to be 6.5 t/ha. They took
a sample of 30 plants, 10 plants each from among the
lowest, medium and highest grain-carrying plants, as I
remember. The average number of tillers for the 30 plants
counted was 37, and the maximum was 65. The growth of
the plants was the same as in traditional paddy, as was their
size. The panicles per hill were 19 (average of 30 plants),
and the grains per panicle were 270 (average of 30 plants).
The instance of unfilled grains was equal as in traditional
paddy, and the quality of hay was good. I did not find any
notable differences between SRI rice and general rice. The
colour and taste were the same, and no problems during
milling were reported. The rice output from SRI paddy was
about 65% of the paddy milled, the same as in the case of
traditional paddy.
I do not know the exact investment in my 0.27 acres of land
– it must have been around Rs. 600 – but clearly the costs
differed in comparison with traditional methods in each
and every item, i.e. seeds, watering, fertiliser and harvesting.
As I already indicated that the costs of the manual weeding
scared me, I stopped. If I could use a rotary weeder I could
be able to reduce the expenses on weeding, and also the soil
could get more oxygen which would probably have led to
higher yields. In traditional systems, expenditures per acre
come to about Rs. 3500 and the income from the paddy is
normally Rs. 10,000 under a market price of Rs. 400 per bag
and a yield of 25 bags. My SRI yield would be 35 bags per
acre as I got 9.5 bags from 0.27 acre, and since the costs
would be about Rs. 1800 per acre, my income would increase
almost twofold. This could be higher, if more technically
correct cultivation was done with a fine seed variety. And I
did not even include the income from the straw, which was
doubled with SRI.
Rabi 2005-2006
As in Kharif, I applied SRI in Rabi as well but this time with
a larger area, i.e. 0.5 acres of land. Although there were
no real problems of water scarcity due to the canal, I had
problems controlling weeds that grew plentiful due to the
dryness of the field. Again I tried hard to arrange a cono
weeder. I heard that Rangeilunda, Ganjam had a weeder so
I went there, but coming there I was harassed due to the
absence of a salesman. Meanwhile the weeds in the field
were so high and the manual weeding became so expensive
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Towards a Learning Alliance: SRI in Orissa