SRI-RICE CENTER NEWS
Updates about the SRI International Network and Resources Center (SRI-Rice)
May 2013
- ANGRAU Professor to Present Seminar on Farmer Innovation with SRI in Andhra Pradesh, India
Dr. R. Vasantha, Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture, ANGRAU, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, India, will give a seminar to the SRI Group at Cornell University on May 21, 2013. Her talk is entitled "Can Farrmers' Innovations Sustain SRI? Experiences from Andrua Pradesh, India."
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SRI-Rice Articles Appears in Baobab and LEISA China Magazines, May 1
Two regional issues of the AgriCultures Network's magazines carried articles by SRI-Rice. Chinese language articles by Erika Styger (水稻强化栽培体系是如何形成的？我们能从中学到什么？) and Norman Uphoff (水稻强化栽培体系给尼泊尔洪水多发地区 带来了新的希望, coauthored by Ram B. Khadka) appeared in the March 2013 edition of LEISA China magazine, which is devoted to SRI. An article by Erika Styger (SRI 2.0: How is SRI evolving, and what are we learning? ) also appeared in the March issue of Baobab magazine (vol. 66, issue 1). (SRI-Rice articles can also be found in the Spanish and global versions of the AgriCultures Network's agricultural magazine.) -
April SRI-Rice Website Additions Posted, May 1
News items, videos, research articles and presentations that were added to the SRI-Rice website during April 2013 are now listed on the April Website Additions page. During March, 5,395 visitors from 120 countries made 7,219 visits to our SRI-Rice website!
Cornell Chronicle Article Notes SRI Success in Cambodia, May 2
A May 2 article in the Cornell Chronicle covers Norman Uphoff''s participation in the 4th National Farmers'Conference in Cambodia in which the Minister of Agriculture reported that SRI has resulted in 50 to 100 percent higher yields for paddies using SRI. (Left to right are Minister of Agriculture Chan Sarun, N. Uphoff, and Y. S. Koma, head of the NGO CEDAC.)
April 2013
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SRI-Rice Participates in Peace Corps SRI Trainings in West Africa, April 30
Erika Styger, SRI-Rice Director of Programs, trained participants at the second of two SRI trainings for Peace Corps Volunteers and their counterparts in West Africa. The event took place on April 29 - May 1, in Kakanitchoé, Benin.
- Interview with SRI-Rice Senior Advisor Appears in Indian Publication, April 23
The April edition of Agriculture & Industry Survey magazine (vol. 23, issue 4) includes an interview with Norman Uphoff entitled "System of Rice Intensification is a way of human resource development, not just rice modification technique." See pages 20-21.
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SRI Presentation at the "Rock Stars in the Future of Food" Event in South Carolina, April 19
The Carolina Gold Rice Foundation's Rock Stars in the Future of Food event, held April 19 at the US Vegetable Laboratory in Charleston, South Carolina, featured presentations and a panel by Erika Styger, Susan McCouch and Anna McClung. Styger's talk was entitled System of Rice intensification (SRI): How a crop management approach lets farmers preserve and improve productivity of indigenous rice varieties in Asia and Africa. - Jorge Acosta to Facilitate SRI-Rice Communications in Latin America April 14
Beginning in April 2013, Jorge Orlando Acosta Buitrago (right) will be facilitating Spanish language outreach in Latin America for Cornell's SRI-Rice Center. He is also currently a graduate student at Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) in Turrialba, Costa Rica. Jorge also recently wrote an article, El SICA orgánico en Colombia, which was published in the magazine LEISA revista de agroecología.
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SRI-Rice Article Appears in LEISA Revista de Agroecología Magazine, April
A Spanish language article by Erika Styger, SICA 2.0: ¿cómo está evolucionando el SICA y qué estamos aprendiendo?, appeared in the April issue of LEISA revista de agroecología (vol. 29, issue1). (Articles in other magazines in the AgriCultures Network can be found on our recent SRI-Rice News and Views blog post.) -
March SRI-Rice Website Additions Posted, April 15
News items, videos, research articles and presentations that were added to the SRI-Rice website during March 2013 are now listed on the March Website Additions page. During March, 5,395 visitors from 120 countries made 7,219 visits to our SRI-Rice website! - Article on SRI Published in Mother Nature News, April 15
Sami Grover's Mother Nature Network article, How small-scale farmers are growing more rice with less water and fewer chemicals, is based upon an interview with Norman Uphoff.
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Bangkok Visits: Planning Workshop at AIT and Presentation FAO's Asian Regional Office, April 8-12
Norman Uphoff participated in an Inception and Planning Workshop at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand, April 8-12. This launched a five-year, four-country action research project with substantial EU finding for ‘Sustaining and Enhancing the Momentum for Innovation and Learning around the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in the
Lower Mekong River Basin.' On April 11, Uphoff together with Dr. Amir Kassam, visiting professor at the University of Reading, UK, and convener for FAO's Conservation Agriculture CoP, made presentations on SRI and CA at the Asian regional office of FAO in Bangkok. The seminar was presided over by Dr. Hiroyuki Konuma, Assistant Director-General of FAO for Asia and the Pacific. (see SRI PowerPoint presentation.) -
Uphoff Visits Cambodia and is Recognized by the Minister of Agriculture for SRI Support and Cooperation, April 5
On April 4-6, Norman Uphoff visited the Cambodian Center for Studies and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC) and attended a national workshop of SRI farmer-promoters associated with the Farmer-Nature-Network (FNN). On April 5, he addressed the closing session of the 4th National Farmers' Conference held at the Royal University of Agriculture. Uphoff presented the Minister of Agriculture with a certificate of appreciation from Cornell for his "leadership in the promotion and understanding of SRI in Cambodia," and the Minister in turn presented Uphoff with a letter of appreciation for his "support and good cooperation in the development and implementation of System of Rice Intensification (SRI) with fruitful results in Cambodia." - Two Publications Cover SRI Mali Project
The recent issue of PeriodiCALS magazine (vol. 3, issue 1) has an article about the 3A Sahel Mali project that SRI-Rice cosponsors together with the NGO SRI Global. "Reaping Success in War-Torn Mali" appears on page 4. The March 2013 issue of Farming Matters magazine also has a box about the Mali project at the end of the in the article "New Initiatives in Madagascar and Mali."
March 2013
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Better U Foundation Senior Advisor Visits SRI-Rice, March 22
John Jolliffe, Senior Advisor to the Better U Foundation (BUF) is visiting the SRI-Rice Center at Cornell University on Friday, March 22. BUF, which has supported the Center since its inception in 2010, has also collaborated on SRI initiatives in Madagascar, Haiti and Mali. [Photo at right shows John (left) together with Erika Styger (center, SRI Director of Programs) and Jim Carrey (right, BUF founder) on a trip to support SRI projects in Haiti.] -
March Issues of Farming Matters and LEISA India Magazines Feature SRI-Rice Articles, March 19
The March issues of Farming Matters and LEISA India magazines have been dedicated to SRI. Both include an interview with Norman Uphoff by Jorge Chavez Tafur entitled "SRI is something unprecedented" (see Farming Matters article and LEISA India article). Erika Styger also had an article in the Farming Matters entitled "SRI 2.0: How is SRI evolving, and what are we learning?" -
February SRI-Rice Website Additions Posted, March 8
News items, videos, research articles and presentations that were added to the SRI-Rice website during February 2013 are now listed on the February Website Additions page.
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Seminar on West African Rice Production at Cornell University, March 11
Dr. Gaoussou Traoré, head of the National Center of Specialization (NCOS) on rice in Mali, presented a seminar in Cornell's Mann Library on March 11 entitled The West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program: Partnerships and strategies for disseminating rice innovations across the region. Traoré visited the SRI-Rice Center at Cornell March 11-15. -
Poster on Gender and SRI Presented at International Women's Day Event, March 8
A poster Gender Dimensions in Agriculture: Sustainable Rice Innovations Make an Impact) was
presented by Lucy Fisher and Rupa Laxmi Shah at the panel on The Feminization of Agriculture: Truths and Consequences held at Cornell University on International Women's Day. -
Presentation at the World Bank, March 7
Erika Styger, SRI-Rice Director, and Gaoussou Traoré, Scientific Coordinator of the Institute of Rural Economy of Mali and Head of the Regional Center of Specialization for Rice, Bamako, Mali, gave a presentation, The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) Initiative for West Africa at the World Bank on March 7, 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM. -
SRI-Rice Director Visits EARTH University in Costa Rica, March 3-6
Erika Styger visited EARTH University in Liberia, Costa Rica, where she learned about the past SRI trials, provided technical advise on the
upcoming mechanized SRI trials, and discussed potential collaboration opportunities between EARTH University and SRI-Rice. During her visit she met with Mark Ohrstrom, president of the EARTH University's board of directors, Jorge Acosta, who had introduced SRI to Columbia and is now pursuing his masters degree in CATIE, and others at the university's research farm. -
Article about about Norman Uphoff in the Press, March 2
Jonathan Specht wrote an article about the SRI-Rice advisor which appears on the Food Tank website. Food hero series: Dr. Norman Uphoff, agricultural development leader begins with a line from a 2008 New York Times article about Uphoff: "If we can't solve the problems of peoples' food needs, we can't do anything.” Read more on how he's working to do just that.
February 2013
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Presentation on SRI Extension in Mali, February 20
Erika Styger made a presentation on Participatory Approaches to Introducing SRI to Mali to the Cornell course IARD 7830 Farmer-Centered Research and Extension. -
SRI-Rice Collaborates on New Video Series on SRI Adoption in Africa, February 17
A new video series on SRI adoption in Southern and Eastern Africa has finally been released! The collaboration between IFAD, SRI-Rice and Flooded Cellar Videos resulted in a set of five videos, each available in English, French and Malagasy. Based on experiences in IFAD-funded projects in Burundi, Madagascar and Rwanda, the videos cover the adoption of SRI by farmers who learned from and teach other farmers like themselves [more...] -
SRI Article and Audio-Slideshow Appear in the Guardian, February 15/16
SRI-Rice Advisor Norman Uphoff narrated an audio-slideshow entitled India's Rice Revolution that appeared in the global development section of the Guardian's website on February 15. Produced by John Vidal and Jim Powell, the audio-slideshow reviewed SRI's success in Bihar and elsewhere. On February 16, an article accompanying the audio program was published in The Guardian and The Observer. A follow-up article by Vidal helped address some of the feedback generated by the Feb. 15 article.
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Dr. Biksham Gujja Visits SRI-Rice -- Presents Seminar to SRI Group and Cornell Community, February 9
Biksham Gujja, founder and director of AgSri Agricultural Services Pvt. Ltd. in Andhra Pradesh, India, visited SRI-Rice February 7-9, 2013. While at Cornell, he presented a seminar entitled "More with Less" - The Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative (SSI) in India and Beyond: Experience & Future Directions, which explained his work in refining and promoting SSI and SRI for the past decade in India and elsewhere. -
SRI-Rice Center News and Monthly SRI-Rice Website Additions Now Available on the SRI-Rice Website, February 4
As of 2013, you no longer have to wait for our annual report to see what is happening with SRI-Rice staff and projects! The SRI-Rice Center News page is now available on our main website. For monthly updates on global news and events from around the world, check our new monthly SRI-Rice Website Additions page. -
SRI West Africa Regional Training of Trainers Report Published, February 1
A new report on the recent SRI West Africa Regional Training of Trainers in Benin is now available. The event, which was jointly organized by the West Africa Food Security Partnership (Peace Corps and USAID), SRI-Rice, and the West African Rice Farmers Network, the took place September 11-13, 2012, at the Solidarité Agricole Integrée (SAIN) teaching farmer and research center in Kakanitchoé, Ouémé. SRI-Rice was the technical partner for the training. The report also follows up on plans and accomplishments by the participants from Benin, Senegal, Guinea, and Togo in the months since the workshop.
January 2013
New Faces at SRI-Rice, January 31
SRI-Rice welcomed several new additions to our office in Mann Library at Cornell: Rupa Laxmi Shah, our new public relations intern, and Jeevan Gyawali, a sophomore studying economics, math and computer science at Cornell. Returning this semester are Pratyaya Jagannath, a graduate student in International Development from Cornell University; Carrie Young, a recent graduate of the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) and two Cornell undergraduates: Zhoucen Feng, our research database assistant, and Christine Ly, who maintains our contacts database.-
Visit to Dominican Republic, January 24-26
Norman Uphoff made the following presentations during a trip to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
1) Agroecological Crop Management for Increased Productivity -- Experience with Rice and Other Crops, presented at the 6th International Seminar on Agricultural Policies, Instituto Interamericano de Cooperation para la Agricultura (IICA).
2) Insights into Plant-Microbial Symbiosis and Implications for Sustainable Agriculture -- Giving Attention to 'Inner Space', presented at the National Institute for Agricultural and Forestry Research (IDIAP).
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Mali Project in the News, January 22
Farmers succeed despite war in Mali, an article in the Cornell Chronicle documents how a project cosponsored by SRI-Rice and SRI Global and carried out by the local NGO 3A-Sahel continued to operate successfully in Mali despite occupation by the Islamic jihadists who swept down from the north. Yields increased 4.3 to 8 tons per hectare [...more]
December 2012
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Happy New Year from SRI-Rice, December 31
The SRI-Rice Team wishes you all a Happy Year New! As of the end of 2012, there are 51 "SRI countries" (..where we have credible reports that use of SRI methods has produced ‘the SRI effect’ - more productive phenotypes from a given rice genotype). We hope that all of your SRI efforts in 2013 meet with success!
SRI-Rice Annual Report, December 15
Our SRI-Rice Annual Report (July 2011 - June 2012) was published during December 2012. In addition to the online version, you can request a hard copy from the SRI-Rice Center while we still have stock. To keep up to date on more recent events, visit our website and social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, YouTube-India, Slideshare, SRI News and Views blog, and for research, Mendeley). SRI-Rice, located at the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD) is supported by the Jim Carrey's Better U Foundation.-
Article Published in the Journal Agriculture and Food Security, December 1
Here's the citation for the latest SRI-Rice publication: Uphoff, Norman. Supporting food security in the 21st century through resource-conserving increases in agricultural production. Agriculture and Food Security, 1:18, 2012.
November 2012
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Article Published on CTA website, November 20
Erika Styger's article "Increasing rice yields and saving water: Lessons for policy and practice - The System of Rice Intensification (SRI)" was published in CTA's Knowledge for Development website. -
Cornell SRI Lecture, November 16
Erika Styger presented a lecture to Prof. Peter Hobbs' Cornell University course in Agriculture in Developing Nations (IARD 4020). The PowerPoint from the talk entitled The System of Rice Intensification – Case Study of Mali is available on the SRI-Rice Slideshare site. -
World Bank Institute SRI Video Conference, November 15
SRI-Rice staff joined in a WBI video conference together with participants from Kenya, Malawi and India. Â Erika Styger made a presentation in the 3 hour event entitled "Adapting SRI principles to rainfed rice - Lessons from Mali and Tanzania; South-South Knowledge Sharing." The event was organized by World Bank Institute and World Bank. (222 min. video) -
Presentation at University of Alberta, Canada... and Publication in Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, November 14
His talk, "We are not alone: Messages from inner space for 21st century agriculture" is available on Youtube. [An article with a similar title was also published in 2012. Here is the citation:
Norman Uphoff presented the Bentley Lecture in Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.
Uphoff, N. 2012. We are not alone: Messages from inner space. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 10(4): 263-267. doi:10.1080/14735903.2012.690957
2012 October
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SRI-Rice Unveils New Video Library, October 31
SRI-Rice unveiled its new video library, which includes SRI-Rice videos as well as organized playlists several hundred videos. Videos are also annotated by country.[see feature article by Lucy Fisher] -
Presentation at the 2nd Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development, October 28
Norman Uphoff made a presentation in Punta del Este, Uruguay, at the CTA Side-Event on 'Partnerships for Research, Capacity Building, Innovation and Foresighting: Managing Water for Agriculture and Food in ACP Countries.' Title: "Integrating Agroecological Crop Management within Integrated Water Resource Management: Lessons from Experience with the System of Rice Intensification (SRI)."
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SRI-Rice Welcomes Speaker from Benin, October 23
SRI-Rice sponsored Pascal Gbenou's presentation on SRI in Benin while he was visiting the SRI-Rice Center at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Pascal met with the SRI-Rice Team and presented a seminar on SRI in Benin on October 23 (see PowerPoint presentation). [more.....] -
Sustainable Agriculture Course Learns about SRI at Cornell, October 18
Erika Styger gave a lecture on the System of Rice Intensification in Prof. Gary Fick's course on Sustainable Agriculture (CSS190) at Cornell University -
Training Manuals on the System of Crop Intensification (SCI) Published by SRI-Rice, October 12
SRI-Rice published in hard copy four additional training manuals on adaptation of SRI principles to other crops. Three of the manuals (
mustard/rape seed, finger millet, and wheat), originally prepared by PRADAN in Hindi, were translated for SRI-Rice by Pratyaya Jagannath. Another manual by P. Baskaran on turmeric in India was edited by Norman Uphoff for production. These English versions are also available on the SRI-Rice website. -
Information on Climate-Smart Agriculture and SCI Shared at World Bank Seminar, October 10
Norman Uphoff made a presentation entitled Producing More with Less: Innovative Cultivation Practices in Rice Crop (SRI) and Beyond at the World Bank Institute BBL series on Sustainable Land and Water Management Community of Practice: Climate-Smart Agriculture Practices - from Pilot to Scaling Up. He also prepared and distributed a booklet about the System of Crop Intensification (Raising Smallholder Food Crop Yields with Climate-Smart Agroecological Practices) at the event.
September 2012
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Video on System of Crop Intensification, September 22
Mark Fulford was interviewed by Erika Styger at the Common Grounds Fair in Maine (USA). A video about his views on the System of Crop Intensification is available on YouTube (click on the thumbnail at right to play the enlarged video). -
Lecture on Shifting Cultivation at Cornell, September 12
Erika Sager presented a lecture on Shifting Cultivation -- Slash-and-Burn Agriculture in Prof. Peter Hobbs' course on Traditional Agriculture in Developing Countries (CSS IA 4030) -
Peace Corps Workshop, September 11-13
SRI-Rice co-organized a Peace Corps workshop/training in Benin together withcollaboration between the West Africa Food Security Partnership, SRI-Rice at Cornell University, and the Conseil de Concertation des Riziculteurs du Benin (CCR-B), and was hosted at the Solidarité Agricole Integrée (SAIN) teaching farmer and research center in Kakanitchoé, Ouémé. Participants came from Benin, Senegal, Guinea, and Togo.
