To: SRI-UPDATE-L@cornell.edu (SRI-UPDATE-L)
From: Norman Uphoff
Subject: SRI-UPDATE-L #17 (July 23, 2008)
Dear SRI-Update-L subscriber,
The following material is part of the SRI UPDATE series being sent out occasionally throughout the year. In this issue, you will find updates about the numerous SRI efforts worldwide. Enhanced versions of these e-updates and archives are also available on the SRI website along with information on how to subscribe for other SRI groups in other countries.
The numbered listing of sections provides an overview of this Update, so you can see quickly what items are included. More information is then given below, and full reports or pictures can be accessed from the SRI home page. To subscribe to an interactive SRI discussion list (INSTEAD of this announcement list to which you are currently subscribed), see http://ciifad.cornell.edu/sri/listservs/index.html#rice.
-Norman Uphoff
for CIIFAD SRI Group
1. INDIA: 3rd National SRI Symposium to Convene in Tamil Nadu
2. BANGLADESH: National Workshop Consolidates Support for SRI
3. SRI LANKA: National SRI Network Formed
4. LAOS: Director of Irrigation Reports that SRI Can Double Yield
5. EGYPT: Plans to Begin SRI Evaluation
6. BRAZIL: SRI Methods Validated in State of Rio Grande do Sul
7. BHUTAN: Two-Page Illustrated Manual Published
8. WEEDERS: Reference Compendium Now Available on the Web
9. SRI Papers at 'Farmer First Revisited' at Sussex Workshop in U.K.
10. Conference on Silicon Announced in South Africa
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1. INDIA: 3RD NATIONAL SRI SYMPOSIUM SET TO CONVENE IN TAMIL NADU
Information about the 3rd National SRI Symposium in India, including registration details, can be found on the SRI-India website (http://www.sri-india.net/). The conference will be hosted by Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, December 1-3 in Coimbatore. Last year's symposium in Agartala, Tripura State, attracted over 250 participants from 27 states of India and 8 countries. Tamil Nadu was chosen as a venue because of its rapid expansion of SRI use, reaching 430,000 ha last season and 750,000 ha expected this year. Co-sponsors of the event include the Departments of Agriculture for Tamil Nadu and Tripura States; the state agricultural universities for Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh; the Directorate of Rice Research (Hyderabad) and the Directorate of Rice Development (Patna), as well as the Central Rice Research Institute (Cuttack); the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Mumbai); the S.D. Tata Trust (Mumbai); the NGO Watershed Support Services & Activities Network (WASSAN http://www.wassan.org/sri/ ); and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) through the WWF-ICRISAT Project.
2. BANGLADESH: NATIONAL WORKSHOP CONSOLIDATES SUPPORT FOR SRI
Dr. Muazzam Husain, chair of the SRI National Network Bangladesh, reports that a day-long National SRI workshop held in Dhaka February 13, 2008, was chaired by the Secretary of Agriculture with the Acting Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources attending as Chief Guest. According to Husain, almost all of the contributions to the workshop, which the Network organized in collaboration with Oxfam GB/Bangladesh, were quite positive about SRI, based upon expanding experience with its methods in Bangladesh. The Secretary called upon the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute and the Department of Agricultural Extension to carry on research and demonstrations with SRI across the country. He requested government agencies and NGOs to collaborate in promoting SRI as an alternative method to increase rice yields and improve food security. The SRI National Network Bangladesh will assist these efforts, drawing on experience working with a number of NGOs already launching SRI programs in Bangladesh.
3. SRI LANKA: NATIONAL SRI NETWORK FORMED
In March 2008, a SRI Network in Sri Lanka (SRIN) was formed with its institutional members including 2 government agencies and 7 NGOs, national or international. Dr. W. G. Somaratna Dr. W. G. Somaratna is serving as the network's coordinator. (See minutes of the first meeting). The network convened its first national forum on March 17 in Colombo, while Norman Uphoff was visiting Sri Lanka hosted by Oxfam/Australia (see trip report).
Oxfam/Australia has released three publications on SRI experience in Sri Lanka, now posted on the SRI website. On-farm research with farmers in four districts, comparing crop establishment through broadcasting, conventional transplanting, and SRI showed average yield of 3.96 t/ha with the first method, 4.7 t/ha with the second, and 5.7 t/ha with SRI. Compared with other methods, SRI offered a seed multiplication advantage of 18 times. The studies also considered what needs to be done to make SRI methods more attractive or feasible for Sri Lankan farmers. (See
• Farmer-Based Research on the Productivity of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI),
• Farmers’ Perceptions of the Factors that Influence the Uptake of SRI Practices in Sri Lanka, and
• Analysis of the Marketing Potential of SRI Rice in Kegalle District, Sri Lanka.
4. LAOS: DIRECTOR OF IRRIGATION REPORTS THAT SRI CAN DOUBLE YIELD
At a Ministry of Agriculture workshop held in Vientiane, March 28, the Director-General of the Department of Irrigation reported on SRI evaluations in three provinces, showing SRI yields of 6-8 tons/ha compared with 3-4 tons/ha using traditional methods. These trials were assisted by Pro-Net 21, a Japanese NGO, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Shuichi Sato, Nippon Koei team leader for DISIMP, reported to the workshop on SRI performance in Indonesia. In July, the Director-General presided over the launch of SRI within the Northern Community-Managed Irrigation Sector Project to introduce SRI in four provinces, according to ( Vientiane Times ).
Recently, Oxfam/Australias program in Laos prepared a report summarizing results from the SRI trials and demonstrations it sponsored on farmers fields 2001-07. The first year yield differential was only 16.5%, but the next year, yield increases were 81-107%. Since then, SRI yield advantages have ranged between 50 and 100%, with reduced use of water and with little or no need for purchased inputs. Some Lao farmers have adapted SRI concepts to rainfed farming systems. The report assesses adaptations made in the original SRI recommendations and ways SRI is being disseminated.
5. EGYPT: PLANS TO BEGIN EVALUATION OF SRI
A proposal has been submitted to the Arab Science and Technology Foundation by Dr. Waled M. El-Khoby, Rice Research and Training Center at Sakha, to carry out an assessment of SRI methods under Egyptian conditions in cooperation with Cornell University scientists. In addition to comparisons with standard rice-growing practices, the research will look at water-saving potentials and productivity and effects of management practices on nutritional parameters in the grain and possibly on heavy-metal
6. BRAZIL: SRI METHODS VALIDATED IN STATE OF RIO GRANDE DO SUL
In July 2007, Andre Goncalves, on leave from the Centro Ecologico while doing a PhD in Natural Resources for Cornell University, introduced SRI methods to a farmer who had previously collaborated with his NGO and who was acquainted with agroecological methods. Sr. Juarez became, as far as we know, the first Brazilian farmer to use SRI methods, and he reports considerable success, getting a paddy yield twice what he was obtaining before. Centro Ecologico has facilitated agroecologically-oriented farmers from many communities to come and see Juarez’s results and expects that there will be rapid spread among these skilled and motivated farmers (See SRI website's Brazil page).
7. BHUTAN: TWO-PAGE ILLUSTRATED MANUAL PUBLISHED
Karma Lhendup, lecturer at the College of Natural Resources of the Royal University of Bhutan has prepared a very succinct ‘manual’ for persons training farmers on SRI or educated farmers. The version on the web) is in English, but a Bhutanese version will be ready soon. Colleagues elsewhere could adapt this manual to their own country needs make adaptations of the text and putting in their own pictures. Colleagues who have developed their own training materials which they would be willing to share, to give others ideas and formats, should send these electronically to the SRI Group at Cornell to be posted on the SRI website.
8. WEEDERS: REFERENCE COMPENDIUM NOW AVAILABLE ON THE WEB
An NGO in Hyderabad, India, WASSAN, which has been giving leadership on SRI in Andhra Pradesh and other states, and also beyond India, in Afghanistan, has compiled commentaries, pictures and technical drawings on the important subject of weeders into a ‘manual’ available . WASSAN’s SRI website has also other reports and pictures that will be of interest to SRI colleagues in other countries.
9. SRI PAPERS AT ‘FARMER FIRST REVISITED’ AT SUSSEX WORKSHOP IN U.K.
The Future Agricultures Consortium based at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex in the U.K. hosted an international workshop on "farmer participatory research and development 20 years on," Dec. 12-14, 2007. Papers and presentations prepared for the workshop are now available online. Three papers were specifically on SRI experience: Shambu Prasad, 'Encounters, dialogues and learning alliances among farmers, scientists and others with the System of Rice Intensification in India'; Norman Uphoff, 'The System of Rice Intensification as a system of agricultural innovation' and 'Farmer innovations improving the SRI'.
10. CONFERENCE ON SILICON ANNOUNCED IN SOUTH AFRICA
Mark Laing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal has informed us that the 4th International Conference on Silicon in Agriculture will be held in South Africa, 26-31 October, 2008. Mark has previously suggested that one explanation for SRI performance could be greater uptake of silicon under aerobic soil conditions (Update #6). Dissolved silicon in the cytoplasm of most plants has a profound effect on their physiology including enhanced tolerance of abiotic stresses, pest and disease resistance, and better post-harvest characteristics of produce. The conference bringing together silicon researchers from around the world could be informative for crop and soil scientists working on SRI. Details are available on the web: http://www.siliconconference.org.za.
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