ciifad banner

logoarrowSRI International Network and Resources Center


Home > Countries > Bangladesh
BANGLADESH

 

Overview

The first information on SRI was brought to Bangladesh in 1999 by a CARE/Bangladesh employee who circulated a paper by N. Uphoff within NGO and government circles after she attended a conference in Bellagio, Italy. During 1999-2001, CARE/Bangladesh and the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) introduced SRI to farmers with whom they were working in Kishorganj District (first boro season average of 6.5-7.5 t/ha), the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) documented a 1 t/ha yield increase and Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) initiated its own trials. In January 2002, a meeting hosted by BRAC brought together public sector, NGO and private sector institutions and resulted in the formation of a national SRI working group and steering committee which gave rise to national SRI workshops in 2002 and 2003. The steering committee was composed of BRRI, DAE, BRAC, CARE, and Syngenta/Bangladesh, which had also tried SRI methods for two years and found them beneficial, particularly for seed multiplication. Other 2003-2004 evaluations were undertaken by BRAC (2003), SAFE Group (2003), and PETRRA (2004).

During 2006, a meeting of the Bangladesh SRI National Steering Committee hosted in Dhaka by ActionAid resulted in the establishment of a SRI National Network Bangladesh (NBB) which subsequently was funded by the Asian Development Bank to undertake SRI trials in different regions of the country. A national workshop on October 11, 2006, was convened by the SRI NNB with cosponsorship and support from Oxfam GB Bangladesh. ActionAid/Bangladesh 2006 reports from several districts showed positive results with SRI. According to 2006 and 2007 reports, various partner NGOs of Oxfam GB Bangladesh (SSUS, ZIBIKA, SKS, GUK, RSDA, Padakhep and POPI) implemented SRI with resource-poor farmers in the northern Char region and the northeastern Haor region with good results. A national SRI workshop was held in 2008 was chaired by the Secretary of Agriculture. The most recent national SRI workshop, which was jointly organized by SRI National Network Bangladesh (SRI NNB) and BRRI, was held at the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute on April 28, 2010. Future plans included an integrated and coordinated program approach by government (research and extension) and NGOs (national and international) for promotion of SRI in Bangladesh. (Revised proceedings were made available in 2012). For a more details rendition of the history of SRI in Bangladesh, see Muazzam Husain's 2015 update on behalf of the SRI NNB.

A 2015 research project involving 3,000 farmers was undertaken to understand SRI adoption in 180 villages associated with BRAC. The results showed that when provided with the incentives, 50% (one in two) of the referred farmers adopted the SRI techniques. Though SRI techniques involve some additional labor for managing practices, the profit remains significantly higher (33%) than the traditional farming, even with less-than-perfect adoption of SRI. The findings were reported in a January 15, 2017, seminar in Dhaka. In 2016, the Water Management Project of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) began a country-wide SRI program in 90 sub-districts in 45 districts to educate and demonstrate to farmers how rice production can be increased through the SRI approach. A 2020 report by Barrett et al showed that greater intensity of training exposure to SRI has a sizable effect on farmers’ likelihood to adopt (and not to disadopt) SRI. They also found a significant spillover learning from trained to untrained farmers as well as large, positive and significant impacts of SRI training on rice yields, revenues, costs, and profits for both trained and untrained farmers in training villages. During 2021, a report from the SRI National Network Bangladesh (SRINNB) noted that, after a decade of training by the NGO ADRA (in conjunction with the Dept. of Agricultural Extension (DAE)), 2,000 farmers in Mymensingh and Manikganj regions are now using SRI methods.

Progress and Activities (2010-2022)

2022 Updates
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015 Updates
2014
2012-13 (For additional information see SRI NNB update)
2011
2010
For 1999-2008 SRI activities, see SRI Bangladesh Archives

Workshops/Seminars

Reports and Articles

Newspaper articles
Website articles, blog posts and reports

Research and Evaluations (in order of acquisition)

Presentations

Videos

IP logo AgNIC logo
The SRI International Network and Resources Center (SRI-Rice) is supported by
Ohrstrom Foundation, The Bridging Peace Fund, Marguerite and Norman Uphoff, and Jim Carrey's Better U Foundation
  Contact Us  | SRI-Rice is associated with International Programs - CALS at Cornell University  | ©2015