AFGHANISTAN SRI ACTIVITY ARCHIVES
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Afghanistan SRI Activity Archives (2002-2009)
(for more recent activities see main Afghanistan page)
2009 Updates
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2009 SRI Campaign Results, Recommendations and Manual
Disseminated
In 2009, 42 farmers, including 7 resource persons (RP) and 35 new volunteers, applied SRI methods to rice cultivation in 3 districts of Baghlan and Takhar provinces as part of the Participatory Management of Irrigation Systems (PMIS) project managed by the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) program in Afghanistan (see report). A practical manual explaining SRI principles and detailing recommended techniques was also prepared by the PMIS project.
The 2009 average SRI yield for the 42 farmers in the 3 districts of Baghlan and Takhar provinces (Baghlan, Doshi and Taloqan) was 9.3 t/ha average, 66% higher yield than they obtained with traditional methods. Experienced farmers have increased their land size under SRI and have improved their SRI yield by + 27 % in comparison to their first trials in 2008. The higher SRI yield was mainly associated with an increase in the number of grains per panicle (+ 47 %) and in number of tillers per m2 (+10 %). Results ranged from 6.6 t/ha average with one weeding to 13.4 t/ha with 4 weedings.
In addition to the on-farm trials, the PMIS team conducted various experiments in the research farm of the Baghlan Agriculture Faculty on: 1) organic and inorganic fertilizers (for the same transplantation date and same variety), 2) the impact of different transplanting dates (for the same fertilizer application and same variety) and 3) the use of different varieties (for same transplanting date and same type of fertilizer application).
Research plots results showed that early transplanting was the most significant factor for getting higher yields, although farmer trials were not as conclusive. While no superiority of animal manure vs. chemical fertilizer was demonstrated in the experiments, it was noted that animal manure contributes more to soil fertility in the middle to long term. More experiments are suggested with the Loog variety as this, despite relatively late transplanting, managed to get reasonable results. Since Loog is an early-maturing variety, it could be attractive for farmers doing double cropping and who harvest their wheat late. FAO has also introduced a new early-maturing variety named Kunduz-1 in Kunduz Province, which should be tested and compared with Loog.
Lessons from the 2009 season will be incorporated into next year's PMIS SRI project. Better-built weeders, labor-saving methods for transplanting, and direct seeding will be investigated in the coming year. Increases in spacing (30x30 cm and 40x40 cm) were planned as this would require less labor than the usual SRI spacing of 25x25 cm and might give as good or better yield. As green manure and compost are expected to improve upon the already high SRI yields, a specific training module may be provided so that interested farmers can apply green manures instead of chemical fertilizers. As SRI principles are starting to be better understood by farmers, the methods could be tested also with other crops. For example, SWI (System of Wheat Intensification) could be of interest to numerous farmers in Takhar, Baghlan and Badakhshan provinces.
2008
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Report on 2008 SRI Trials In Baghlan Province
The Natural Resource Management team of the Aga Khan Foundation-Afghanistan working in Baghlan Province
has provided a report on the 2008 season. Its first-year trials
in 2007 were not very successful, as the SRI crop was transplanted one month
late and given the high altitude (1700 m) with cool temperatures and a short
growing season, the SRI plants gave disappointing yields (3 tons/ha compared to
6.5 tons/ha for the controls). The SRI plant tillering was impressive, however,
so six farmers volunteered to do carefully-controlled and monitored trials in
2008. This year, the results were quite different, with SRI yields averaging
10.13 t/ha while the controls yielded 5.41 t/ha. A photo of transplanting
11-day-old seedlings is shown at right (see larger photo). One
farmer, Juma Gul, calculated his yield at 11.56 tons/ha. The seasonal report was compiled by Ali Mohammed Ramzi on
behalf of the AKF-A team. (See also smaller size
report without photos). -
A New Season of SRI Trials Underway in Baghlan Province
Ali Muhammad Ramzi reported that the 2008 SRI transplanting
for Aga Khan Foundation's PMIS farm in Baghlan province began on May 21
(see reports with photos of seedbed
preparation and marking/transplanting).
During a subsequent farm visit with Juma Gul, an SRI volunteer farmer in the
Kelagai Project Canal, 133 tillers were counted on a single plant transplanted
72 days earlier (at right)-- which the Kelagai farmers found astonishing. -
Kabir reviews German Agro Action Progress in Taloqan District
During May, 2008, Humayun Kabir returned to Afghanistan's Taloqan District in Takhar Province to review German Agro Action (GAA)'s SRI activities carried out in conjunction with their Project on Social Management of Water (SMWA). SRI was introduced by the project in 2007 as part of its food security strategy with particular attention to efficient use and management of water by the farmers. While the initial efforts were not completely successful, one of the farmers got a yield of 490 kg from 500 sq.m. area (9.8 tons per hectare), which is considered a good achievement for a SRI beginner. After identifying the weaknesses in the original project, at least 50 farmers from 7 clusters are expected to participate in SRI trials during 2008 (see report for details).
2007
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Encouraging First-Year Trials and Demonstrations
With support from the Aga Khan Foundation, SRI colleague in India, Parcha Kishan Rao, trained farmers in Baghlan Province who subsequently started demo-trials in three locations. Field supervisor Ali Muhammad has provided reports (May '07 and July '07) to AKF/Afghanistan coordinator, Atanu De. Weeding emerged as the most significant difficulty. However, weed problems have been handled by combining manual and mechanical weeding. Neighboring farmers who were skeptical about transplanting such tiny seedlings are now impressed by plant growth. The number of tillers at 42 days after transplanting has reached 48 in some SRI plants. A subsequent report (August '07) said that some SRI plants had reached a total of 120 tillers.
The final 2007 report of the Aga Khan Foundation program for the first year of trials and demonstrations in Baghlan and Takhar provinces indicate that, while plant growth was impressive as many as 120 tillers per plant at 96 days transplanting was done too late to capitalize upon the crop potential given the short growing season there. AKF organized visits and training for dozens of farmers involved in its programs and in that of the German NGO Agro-Action, which resulted in much interest as well as concrete plans for an expanded and better-timed effort in 2008.
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Plans to Introduce SRI into Kunduz
In Kunduz, an agricultural engineer working with the German NGO Agro-Action, Fazlullah, has previously reported plans to introduce and evaluate SRI methods in that northern community in Afghanistan.
2003
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SRI Introduced into Ajrestan
In July 2003, Humayun Kabir, agricultural advisor for the Metta Development Foundation in Myanmar, visited Afghanistan for 10 days to introduce SRI to farmers in Ajrestan, a relatively peaceful area in the central part of the country. The visit was arranged by Mohammed Daoud, a prominent member of that community who wants farmers in the area to have better options for use of the limited water supply available from their irrigation system. While in Kabul, Kabir also met with a consortium of NGOs that are working on agricultural development in Afghanistan and that showed much interest in SRI possibilities. (As of 2009, however, we had no information on results from the 2003 initiative to introduce SRI methods in the Ajrestan area).
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SRI Introduced to NGO in Mazar-e-Sharif
Cornell PhD student Mark Henning has also introduced SRI to an NGO, Joint Development Associates International, working around Mazar-e-Sharif in the north. However, there have been no recent reports on SRI activities in this area.
