System of Rice Intensification

NEPAL

Overview of SRI in Nepal	Reports and Articles	Workshops
Progress / Activities ('10-'11)	Evaluations / Research	SRI-Nepal Discussions
Activity Archives ('98-'10)	Practical Information	PowerPoints
		Photo Collection

Overview

The first SRI trials in Nepal were undertaken in 1998 by a government agronomist at the Khumaltar Research Farm (near Kathmandu) in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development CRSP program. In 2001, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Appropriate Technology Asia (ATA) began trials at sites near Kathmandu and in the Rupandehi District. Most of these early trials did not produce expected results. In 2002-2003, Farmer Field Schools in the Sunsari-Morang irrigation project supported by DFID in the terai (southern plains) of Nepal undertook replicated SRI trials which produced an average of 8 t/ha, more than either improved practices or conventional practices. In April 2002, SRI presentations sponsored by CIMMYT and Winrock International made at the National Agricultural Research Council (NARC) headquarters in Kathmandu were followed by the formation of a national SRI network and the SRI-Nepal discussion group. A national workshop was held in 2003.

During April 2005, an SRI project was among the winners of the World Bank’s Nepal Development Marketplace (NDM) competition. Mr. Rajendra Uprety from the District Agricultural Development Office in Morang (terai), whose trials from 2004-2007 showed doubling of yields and earlier maturing crops with SRI, used the funds to promote SRI within his and neighboring districts.

SRI evaluation was carried out in 2004 - 2005 by PARDYP (People and Resource Dynamics in Mountain Watersheds of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region) sponsored by ICIMOD (the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development). This began with a few farmers in Jhiku Khola Watership in 2004 and expanded into a 15-village program in 2005 where over 100 farmers participated in SRI Farmer Field Schools. Results included a 40-50% yield increase, 75% reduction in seed requirements and 50-75% reduction in water use, as well as reduced labor for transplanting and irrigation. The cost of weeding was 50-60% more, while costs of fertilizer and harvesting remained the same. During December 2005, ICIMOD hosted a national SRI workshop in Kathmandu.

During 2008, ATA's demonstration and education center in Madana Village Development Committee (VDC) area has successfully used SRI methods at 2500 m altitude in southern Humla district of Nepal. On May 22-23, 2009, a training program was organized in cooperation with World Vision International/Nepal and Sunaulo Bihani Society Development Center. In April 2010 the NGO FAYA-Nepal in collaboration with UN/FAO established a demonstration plot and carried out trainings in Kailali district with EU funding. Demonstration plots were established in the Dolpa district (Karnali zone) during July 2010.

Two master's theses on SRI (about productivity and economic viability and weed control) were completed at Tribhuvan University during 2009. In a presentation at the 3rd International Rice Congress during 2010, Rajendra Uprety presented evidence that in the Morang District combining SRI with mechanization gave 55% higher yields than conventional cultivation, with 27% reduction in costs of cultivation. Several SRI trainings in early 2011 involving government agencies, UN and bilateral aid groups, and national NGOs (see 2011 updates) have increased the spread of SRI in Nepal.

Progress and Activities

2012 Updates

• SRI Prioritized in as Food Security Intervention by Nepali Ministry

  On January 3, 2012, a SRI-Nepal group post included informaton from Rambahadur Khadka that "the Ministry of Local Development has directed all its local bodies (village development committees and district development committees) to allocate at least 15% of the development budget in agriculture sector. They have prioritized the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) as an important intervention for food security in Nepal. This is one of the great achievements of our advocacy campaign for SRI conducted in last year."

2011 UPDATES

• Field Visit by Political Leaders to SRI Field in Kailali District

  On July 9-10, 2011, a high-level mission from two major political parties and members of the Constituent Assembly in Nepal made a visit to Kailali District in the far west of the country to view SRI fields. The delegation included Devendra Poudel, a Politburo member of the United Nepal Communist Party (Maoist), and Garima Shaha, a Central Committee Member of the Nepal Communist Party (United Marxism and Leninism) as well as Rabindra Adhikari, Lila Bhandari, Ramesh Lekhak, and Hari Roka, members of ConstituentAssembly.

  The mission visited SRI fields (left) and discussed with farmers at Darakh, Ramsikharjhala and Khailad Village Development Committees (VDCs) on the first day, and participated in a district-level interaction programme at Dhangadhi on the second day. The delegation leaders pledged to the stakeholders and farmers participating in the meeting to have a national policy for disseminating SRI methods all-round the country. (See report for additional comments and follow up proposed by participating officials). Various reports included a paper on SRI activities and achievements in the western Terai presented by programme coordinator of EUFF project (also with NGO FAYA-Nepal), Ram Bahadur Khadka, who also inaugurated his book, System of Crop Intensification:Experience and Practice on SRI and SWI Technique (cover shown at right), during the event.

• SRI Training in Panchthar District

  A three-day SRI training program, organized by the District Agricultural Development Office (DADO) for Panchthar, was facilitated by Rajendra Uprety together with DADO Jhapa and DADO Panchthar staff on June24-26, 2011, in Phidim. Twenty-five farmers from five village development committees participated in the training, which included two days of classes followed by an SRI transplanting day in the field (shown at right). Participants were motivated by a video and a picture of an SRI plant from Uprety’s own garden (left), exhibiting the great tillering possibilities from a single rice seed.

• Season-Long Officer-Level Training of Trainers (TOT) on IPM FFS Focuses on SRI Method

  The Plant Protection Directorate/Department of Agriculture and FAO/EU Food Facility project has started a season-long officer level training of trainers (TOT) in Chitwan, Nepal. The training began on March 29, 2011, and will continues through the harvest of crop. Thirty participants from all over Nepal are participating, including 28 from Department of Agriculture (different district agriculture development offices/regional agriculture training centers/Quarantine and laboratories) and 2 from Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Rampur. This training is facilitating by senior IPM FFS trainers, Rajendra Uprety and several other subject matter specialists. (See report).

• Numerous SRI Trainings Facilitated by Rajendra Uprety in Jhapa District

  During March and April, 2011, Senior Agriculture Development Officer of DADO Jhapa, Mr. Rajendra Uprety facilitated SRI trainings throughout the Jhapa district. A March 17 training of 28 farmers with the Prithibinagar Village Development Committee (VDC) was followed by an April 4 transplanting training with 45 farmers from 13 farmers groups. SRI transplanting training was conducted on March 21 with 36 farmers from different farmers groups in the Jalthal VDC.

  The District Agriculture Development Office Jhapa organized a training and discussion meeting involving five VDCs at Agriculture Wholesale Market, Birtamod on Friday, March 4, 2011. The event (right) included 32 participants from the village development committees - Sanischare, Arjundhara, Anarmani, Garamani and Charpane. SRI booklets and posters were distributed among participants, who were anxious to learn more about SRI and try out the rotary weeders for weed control. Some of the participants who had been using hybrid rice seed reported that some of the SRI practices (younger seedlings, single transplanting and wider spacing) were similar to those used in hybrid rice cultivation. At the end of the training, participants using hybrid seed hoped that by using SRI methods they will be able produce high yields expected with hybrids, but without the hybrid seed, which costs ten times more than non-hybrid seed (NRs. 400-500/kg for hybrid seed; NRs. 40-50 for non-hybrid seed). Several participants reported they will try SRI in both spring season and the upcoming main season.

• Training ofTrainers on SRI andIntegrated Pest Management Held in Lalitpur District under EU/FAO Auspices

  The Plant Protection Directorate (Department of Agriculture/Nepal) and EU/FAO Food Security project jointly organized a 4-day Officer-Level Training Curriculum Development Workshop on SRI and IPM in the Emergency Rehabilitation and Coordination Unit (ERCU) of FAO in Lalitpur, on February 8-11, 2011. (Click on photo at left to enlarge view of the group). The workshop prepared and finalized curriculum for training of trainers (TOT) for promotion of SRI and vegetable integrated pest management (IPM) through Farmer Field Schools (FFS). The workshop has inaugurated by the Director-General of the Department of Agriculture, Mr. Vijaya K. Mallik, and the opening session has chaired by the IPM national coordinator and program director, Dr. Yubak Dhoj, GC. PPD. (see page 3 of the Nepal 2011 report for details).
  
  

• SRI Training and Program Development in Khotang District

  An SRI orientation was held in Diktel, Khotang District, on January 3-4, 2011. The program was organized by the NGO Janasewa Samaj Khotang, facilitated by Rajendra Uprety, and supported by the Rural Access Program II (funded by Swiss Development Cooperation). The meeting, which included many stakeholders (at right), was held to prepare a plan of introducing SRI in the district in order to increase production of rice. The 38 participants decided to commence SRI in lowland areas in April 2011, with Dil Bahadur Rai, Janasewa Samaj Nepal, working as district coordinator for SRI promotion. The SRI promotion will also stress local seeds preservation, and marketing, as well as increased income through SRI. Thirty-five rotary weeders are to be distributed and 35 demo plots were planned for different areas of the district. The possibility of the Centre for Rural Technology (CRT) getting involved in producing sturdy, low-priced weeders was also investigated. A number of other tasks were distributed among government groups, NGOs, political parties, journalists, and others (see report for details).

• Booklet, Poster and Weeder Distribution Help Scale Up SRI Activity

  The EU/FAO Food Security project recently published an SRI poster (left) in both Nepali and English languages, and a corresponding booklet (right) for wide distribution within the country. (Note: Click on the poster to see the larger version. Click again on the image that appears to see the further enlarge the poster. The booklet corresponding to the cover page at right is not yet online).

  At the same time, about 700 rotary weeders have been imported from India by the EU/FAO Food Security project, DADO Jhapa and DADO Okhaldhunga and NGOs of Khotang to scale up SRI activity in targeted areas in Nepal.

• Mechanization of SRI in Nepal Reported at 3rd International Rice Congress

  Rajendra Uprety, now with DADO Jhapa, presented a paper on the mechanization trials being conducted in Morang district with support from Buddha Air, at the 3rd International Rice Congress held in Hanoi, Vietnam, November 8-12. The farmers who cooperated in the evaluation were already experienced with SRI and adapted their practices for mechanical land preparation, transplanting, weeding and harvesting. Combining SRI with mechanization gave 55% higher yields than conventional cultivation, with 27% reduction in costs of cultivation. Both the amount of labor inputs and the time for operations were substantially reduced. This shows that there are good possibilities for reducing the labor requirements for SRI cultivation where labor shortages are a constraint on SRI adoption.

• [2010 updates continued on the archives page]

1998-2010 -see Nepal activity archives

Reports and Articles

• 2011. Government ignores high rice production method. The Himalayan, July 13, Top Stories section.
• Spence, Linda. 2011. IPS Innovation in the Rice Fields of Nepal. P.E.O International website. May-June edition. [Story about Janani Rajbhandari Thapa's promotion of SRI in Chitwan Valley, Nepal. She is now a PhD student at Texas A&M University.]
• Mahato, Rubeena. 2011. Nepal's hunger solution. Nepali Times, June 24-30, Nation section, Issue 559.
• Mahato, Rubeena. 2011. Nepal can feed itself . Nepali Times, June 24-30, Headline, Issue 559.
• Uprety, Rajendra. 2011. SRI training in Jhapa. System of Rice Intensification website. (3p., 441KB pdf)
• Uprety, Rajendra. 2011. SRI activities in Nepal as of 2011. System of Rice Intensification website. (3p., 25.47KB pdf)
• Uprety, Rajendra. 2010. Meshing mechanization with SRI methods for rice cultivation in Nepal. Paper presented at the 3rd International Rice Congress, held in Hanoi, Vietnam, November 8-12. (5p, 40.2KB pdf)
• Khadka, Ram Bahadur. 2010. First time SRI demonstration plot is established in Kailali district in Nepal. System of Rice Intensification website. (1p., 117KB pdf) [Report for the EU food facility project, and FAYA-Nepal, Dhangadhi, Kailali, Nepal.]
• 2010. NEPAL: Training farmers to adapt to unpredictable weather. IRIN (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), July 19.
• Uphoff, Norman. 2006. Report on a visit to Nepal's Morang District, November 2-5, 2006, to review the status of SRI activities there, followed by other activities. System of Rice Intensification website. (30p. pdf) [Trip report for Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development]
• Uprety, Rajendra. 2005. System of Rice Intensification (SRI) performance in Morang District during 2005 main season. System of Rice Intensification website. (10p. pdf) [Report for District Agriculture Development Office, Biratnagar, Morang, Nepal]
• Dixit, Kunda. 2005. Less is more: working miracles in Nepal's rice fields. SciDev.net, Sept. 15, Features section.
• Dixit, Kunda. 2005. The miracle is it's no miracle. Nepali Times, July 15 - 21, Nation section, Issue 256.
• Uprety, Rajendra. 2005. Progress report of SRI promotional activities in Morang district and other places in Nepal. Agriculture Development Office, Morang, Nepal. System of Rice Intensification website. (pdf)
• Uprety, Rajendra. 2005. Performance of System of Rice Intensification in Morang District, 2004. System of Rice Intensification website. (7p., pdf) [Report for District Agriculture Development Office, Biratnagar, Morang, Nepal]
• Uprety, Rajendra. 2004. System of Rice Intensification in the context of Nepalese rice production. System of Rice Intensification website. (4p., pdf) [Report for District Agriculture Development Office, Biratnagar, Morang, Nepal]
• Adoption of system of rice intensification (SRI) technique in central Terai of Nepal. WISARD Project information on an SRI project of the Nepal Agriculture Research Council and the (NARC): Agriculture Research Station (Agri-Machinery) in Ranighat and the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Parwanipur (Project duration: from May 2003 until December 2005) [no longer online]
• Evans, Chris, S. Justice and S. Shrestha. 2002. Experience with the System of Rice Intensification in Nepal. Paper presented at the conference on Assessments of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), April 1-4, in Sanya, China.

Evaluations and Research

• Karki, Sudeep. 2010. System of Rice Intensification: An analysis of adoption and potential environmental benefits. Master's thesis. Norwegian University of Life Sciences. (80p., 8.65MB)
• Uprety, Rajendra. 2010. Meshing mechanization with SRI methods for rice cultivation in Nepal. Paper presented at the 3rd International Rice Congress, held in Hanoi, Vietnam, November 8-12. (5p, 40.2KB pdf)
• Karki, Keshav Bahadur. 2009. Productivity and economic viability of rice under different planting pattern and age of seedlings through System of Rice Intensification (SRI). Tribhuvan University, Nepal. (107p., 446KB pdf)
• Pandey, Sharad. 2009. Effect of weed control methods on rice cultivars under the System of Rice Intensification (SRI). Master's thesis, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. (176 p.,876 KB pdf)
• Madhav Prasad Dhakal. 2005. Farmers’ evaluation of the System of Rice Intensification in the middle mountains of Nepal. System of Rice Intensification website. (39 p., pdf) [Article for People and Resource Dynamics in Mountain Watersheds of the HKH (PARDYP) /International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Khumaltar, Kathmandu, Nepal]
• Uprety, Rajendra. 2005. System of Rice Intensification (SRI) performance in Morang District during 2005 main season. System of Rice Intensification website. (10p., pdf) [Report for District Agriculture Development Office, Biratnagar, Morang, Nepal]
• 2003. Yield Data from Treatment Evaluated by Sunsari-Morang Farmer Field Schools, Nepal Monsoon season, 2003. System of Rice Intensification website. (2p., pdf) [Data from District Agriculture Development Office, Biratnagar, Morang, Nepal]

Practical Information

• 2011. SRI poster (in Nepali; English version in not online). EU/FAO Food Security project. System of Rice Intensification website. (A corresponding booklet is not yet online)
• Nepali language SRI manual. Appropriate Technology Asia. (6p., 4MB pdf - slow download!).
• Uprety, Rajendra. Nepali language SRI manual. Morang District Agricultural Development Office, Ministry of Agriculture. 6p. (2.234MB pdf).
• Nepali language SRI manual. Appropriate Technology Asia and the SRI Group-Nepal. 16 p. (16 p., 749KB pdf) (An English version is also available).

Workshops and Meetings

• SRI Orientation and Training
  Diktel, Khotang District, Nepal, January 3-4, 2011
  Organized by Janasewa Samaj Khotang and supported by the Rural Access Program II (funded by Swiss Development Cooperation).
  
• Training Program at Rupandehi District
  Organized by The Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences (IAAS), Tribhuvan University, Rampur, Chitwan in cooperation with World Vision International/Nepal and Sunaulo Bihani Society Development Center
  May 22-23, 2009
• Report of Meeting of Nepal SRI Network Participants
  Biratnegar, Nepal, May 2006
  
• Exchange Workshop on the System of Rice Intensification
  International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Lalitpur, Nepal, December 19, 2005
• Report of Meeting of Nepal SRI Network Participants
  Kathmandu, Nepal, April 2004
  (from notes of Khem Raj Dahal, IAAS, Chitwan)

SRI-Nepal Discussion Group

• SRI-NEPAL is a Yahoo Group managed by the SRI Nepal Network. This group's purpose is the exchange of information between members of the Nepal SRI Network (System of Rice Intensification) and other interested persons. Members of the network are scientists and practitioners who are working towards improving rice-growing systems in Nepal. (see traffic)
  
  To subscribe, go to the SRI-NEPAL URL at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sri-nepal and follow the instructions, or send e-mail to: sri-nepal-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

PowerPoint Presentations

(Notes: Click here to see all SRI Nepal presentations on slidehare.net. Transcripts are at the bottom of each presentation. There is a "full screen" button at the lower right corner of the presentation to enlarge the presentation. If you have trouble viewing the slideshow, make sure you have Flash installed and JavaScript enabled.)

• 2010. Meshing mechanization with SRI methods for rice cultivation in Nepal
  PowerPoint presentation by Rajendra Uprety at the 3rd International Rice Congress, held in Hanoi, Vietnam, November 8-12. (see also accompanying paper). 16 slides.
• 2009. Dynamics of Rice Intensification System in Nepal
  - PowerPoint presentation by Rajendra Uprety (TAD, Wageningen UR). 48 slides
• 2008. System of Rice Intensification (SRI): Experiences of Nepal
  - PowerPoint presentation by Rajendra Uprety (District Agriculture Development Office, Morang, Nepal) at the 3rd National SRI Symposium at TNAU, Coimbatore, India. 23 slides
• 2007. Facing the Ecology of Green Revolution Rice: The Controversy Around the System of Rice Intensification and its Consequences for Future Rice Improvement Strategies
  - PowerPoint presentation by Rajendra Uprety, Agriculture Extension Officer, District Agriculture Development Office, Morang, Nepal. 16 slides
• 2006. The System of Rice Intensification (SRI): A Good Alternative for Increasing Irrigated Rice Cultivation and its Productivity in Nepal
  - PowerPoint presentation by Rajendra Uprety, Agriculture Extension Officer, District Agriculture Development Office, Morang, Nepal. 31 slides

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