EGYPT
Progress and Activities
2009-2010 Updates
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Three Seasons of Trials with SRI Methods Show Benefits on Normal and
Saline Soils
Dr. Waled Elkhoby, Rice Research and Training Center, Sakha, Kafr El-Sheikh (Field Crop Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center) has carried out three seasons of experiments using SRI methods under both normal and saline soils during 2008-2009 (see preliminary report). The trials on normal soils were conducted at the Sakha research station and those on saline soils were undertaken at the El-Sirw research station. The goal was to reduce the inputs needed for rice cultivation, such as lower seed rates, water, fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.
Field experiments indicated that the amount of irrigation water applied using SRI methods can be reduced to 35% compared with the conventional method of continuous flooding. The rate of seeding can reduced to 50 kg/ha for the inbred rice and 15 kg/ha for the hybrid rice. Grain yield with SRI methods was more than 12 ton/ha for the inbred rice and 15 ton/ha for the hybrid rice. Researchers found that young seedlings less than 15 days spaced at 20x20 cm between hills were suitable for saline conditions, and that bed planting methods could save more water. Under normal soils, SRI methods also gave very promising results with rice grain yield and water saving.
Additional experiments will have to be conducted in order for the government decide to disseminate SRi through a national technology transfer program. One of the major constraints to increasing rice production with SRI methods in Egypt is the scarcity of well-trained expertise.
2008 Updates
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Egypt Becomes Thirty-first Country to Report Positive SRI
Results
Dr. Walid El-Khoby, researcher at the Rice Research and Training Center at Sakha, has reported on trials conducted at his Center which showed SRI yields of 10.7 tons per hectare with inbred improved varieties, and 13.9 tons per hectare with hybrid varieties. Since Egypt's national average yield at 9.5 tons per hectare is the highest in the world, these yield increases are not as great in percentage terms (12.5% and 46%) as in some other countries. However, they were achieved with a 35% reduction in water use and
one-third lower
costs of production, which makes the results attractive in Egypt. -
Mustapha Ceesay Visits SRI Trials at Rice Research and Training
Center
In August 2008, Dr. El-Khoby and colleagues at the Rice Research and Training Center and their SRI trial plots were visited by Dr. Mustapha Ceesay, research director of the Gambia’s National Agricultural Research Institute, who was attending an international rice conference in Cairo. Ceesay, who has been evaluating SRI in the Gambia since 2000 while still a graduate student at Cornell, shared his considerable experience with SRI practices with Egyptian colleagues (see Ceesay's report and photo at right).
