Assessment of System of Rice Intensification(SRI) and Conventional Practices under Organic and Inorganic Management in Japan

The system of rice intensification(SRI) is a production system that involves the adoption of certain changes in management practices for rice cultivation that create a better growing environment for the crop.This system was compared with conventional practices and assessed under organic and inorganic management.SRI practices showed significant response in root number,number of effective tillers per hill,days to flowering and harvest index.In addition,SRI was found effective in minimizing pest and disease incidence,shortening the crop cycle,and improving plant stand.Grain yield was not different from conventional method.Except for harvest index and plant lodging percentage,there were no significant effects from management treatments.Synergistic responses were noted when SRI practices were combined with organic management for plant height,number of effective tillers per hill,days to flowering and to maturity.The improved panicle characteristics,lower plant lodging percentage and higher harvest index that ultimately led to comparable grain yields.Net returns increased approximately 1.5 times for SRI-organic management regardless of the added labor requirements for weed control.However,comparatively higher grain yield from conventional-inorganic methods underscore the need for further investigations in defining what constitutes an optimum set of practices for an SRI-organic system specifically addressing grain yield and weed management.

Potential of System of Rice Intensification (SRI) to Contribute to the Policy Objectives: Paradigm of Three-Tier Approach in Southern Telangana—A Case Study of Narayanpet

A programme effort for SRI impact assessment has been undertaken in 20 project villages in the Narayanpet block. The villages have been pooled under four clusters, for which quantitative and qualitative analyses have been carried out on water usage, input cost, plant growth, farmer group collectivization, gross and net returns of SRI, and conventional paddy cultivation. The result shows that significant water saving was achieved for SRI, i.e., 8586 m3∙ha−1 under tubewell irrigation over conventional. This approximation has served as an auxiliary to the number of pumping hours and number of irrigation days that have been reduced for SRI. Less utilisation of water and distance maintained in SRI has benefited in reducing the biotic and abiotic stress caused by snails and nutrient deprivation, respectively. The total yield for a sampled number of SRI farmers has been found to have a 22% increase for the total expenditure difference of Rs. 6153, i.e., 13% less than conventional paddy farmers, which highly impacts the SRI farmers’ net income, i.e., 69% more than the conventional returns. The SRI method has a lower labour deployment of 8 people/ha than the conventional method, which requires 16 people/ha with a constant price of Rs 250/person. Input cost saving in these two categories has ranked top and has fetched maximum production efficiency among the others. The seed cost at a fixed price of 32 Rs/kg was significantly (87%) reduced for SRI as 8 kg per ha was required rather than the conventional that required 62 kg/ha. Social benefits were listed based on the qualitative analysis and were transformed using the theory of planned behaviour.

System of Rice Intensification Verses Conventional Rice System: Off-farm Field Studies

With inevitable growth of demand for human and industrial needs,water available for agriculture will become scarcer in the future.India is a highly water-stressed country.Hence,India needs to invest in improving its water productivity,and any capacity to produce more rice with less water.System of Rice Intensification(SRI)has attracted much attention in increasing rice yield per unit area.For this study,fifteen farmers were selected those were practicing SRI technology by themselves during the Boro-cultivation season(January-April).The study was continued for three consecutive years 2012 to 14 on the same fields.In addition to the SRI plots,a similar size of non-SRI plot was maintained in conventional cultivation for comparison purpose.On an average,the non-SR I ight increased by 12%,number of tillers per square meter by 85%,number of reproductive tillers per hill by 286%,weight of panicle per hill by 139%,number of seeds per panicle by 41%and test weight by 26% due to SRI practice over the non-SRI practice.Average increment in straw and grain yield due to SRI over the non-SRI is 70%and 59%respectively.The physico-chemical and biological properties of soil improved due to SRI practice.

Evaluating system of rice intensification using a modified transplanter:A smart farming solution toward sustainability of paddy fields in Malaysia

This paper presents the study reports on evaluating a new transplanting operation by taking into accounts the interactions between soil,plant,and machine in line with the System of Rice Intensification(SRI)practices.The objective was to modify planting claw(kuku-kambing)of a paddy transplanter in compliance with SRI guidelines to determine the best planting spacing(S),seed rate(G)and planting pattern that results in a maximum number of seedling,tillers per hill,and yield.Two separate experiments were carried out in two different paddy fields,one to determine the best planting spacing(S=4 levels:s_(1)=0.16 m×0.3 m,s_(2)=0.18 m×0.3 m,s_(3)=0.21 m×0.3 m,and s_(4)=0.24 m×0.3 m)for a specific planting pattern(row mat or scattered planting pattern),and the other to determine the best combination of spacing with seed rate treatments(G=2 levels:g1=75 g/tray,and g2=240 g/tray).Main SRI management practices such as soil characteristics of the sites,planting depth,missing hill,hill population,the number of seedling per hill,and yield components were evaluated.Results of two-way analysis of variance with three replications showed that spacing,planting pattern and seed rate affected the number of one-seedling in all experiment.It was also observed that the increase in spacing resulted in more tillers and more panicle per plant,however hill population and sterility ratio increased with the decrease in spacing.While the maximum number of panicles were resulted from scattered planting at s_(4)=0.24 m×0.3 m spacing with the seed rate of g1=75 g/tray,the maximum number of one seedling were observed at s_(4)=0.16 m×0.3 m.The highest and lowest yields were obtained from 75 g seeds per tray scattered and 70 g seeds per tray scattered treatment respectively.For all treatments,the result clearly indicates an increase in yield with an increase in spacing.

Influence of Crop Nutrition on Grain Yield,Seed Quality and Water Productivity under Two Rice Cultivation Systems

The system of rice intensification （SRI） is reported to have advantages like lower seed requirement,less pest attack,shorter crop duration,higher water use efficiency and the ability to withstand higher degree of moisture stress than traditional method of rice cultivation.With this background,SRI was compared with traditional transplanting technique at Indian Agricultural Research Institute,New Delhi,India during two wet seasons （2009-2011）.In the experiment laid out in a factorial randomized block design,two methods of rice cultivation [conventional transplanting （CT） and SRI] and two rice varieties （Pusa Basmati 1 and Pusa 44） were used under seven crop nutrition treatments,viz.T 1,120 kg/hm2 N,26.2 kg/hm2 P and 33 kg/hm2 K;T 2,20 t/hm2 farmyard manure （FYM）;T 3,10 t/hm2 FYM＋ 60 kg/hm2 N;T 4,5 t/hm2 FYM＋ 90 kg/hm2 N;T 5,5 t/hm2 FYM＋ 60 kg/hm2 N＋ 1.5 kg/hm2 blue green algae （BGA）;T 6,5 t/hm2 FYM＋ 60 kg/hm2 N＋ 1.0 t/hm2 Azolla,and T 7,N 0 P 0 K 0 （control,no NPK application） to study the effect on seed quality,yield and water use.In SRI,soil was kept at saturated moisture condition throughout vegetative phase and thin layer of water （2-3 cm） was maintained during the reproductive phase of rice,however,in CT,standing water was maintained in crop growing season.Results revealed that CT and SRI gave statistically at par grain yield but straw yield was significantly higher in CT as compared to SRI.Seed quality was superior in SRI as compared to CT.Integrated nutrient management （INM） resulted in higher plant height with longer leaves than chemical fertilizer alone in both the rice varieties.Grain yield attributes such as number of effective tillers per hill,panicle length and panicle weight of rice in both the varieties were significantly higher in INM as compared to chemical fertilizer alone.Grain yields of both the varieties were the highest in INM followed by the recommended doses of chemical fertilizer.The grain yield and its attributes of Pusa 44 were significantly higher than those of Pusa Basmati 1.The seed quality parameters like germination rate and vigor index as well as N uptake and soil organic carbon content were higher in INM than those in chemical fertilizer alone.CT rice used higher amount of water than SRI,with water saving of 37.6% to 34.5% in SRI.Significantly higher water productivity was recorded in SRI as compared to CT rice.

Establishment of Community-Based Dissemination Model and Its Effective Function for Sustainable Food Security and Poverty Reduction

Vietnam ranks as one of the largest rice exporters in the world.Two major deltas,the Mekong River Delta and the Red River Delta,contribute around 70%of the country’s rice production and 90%of its rice exports,while people in the mountainous areas of Central Vietnam still suffer from food shortage for three to four months per year.To combat this incongruous situation,the Foundation for International Development/Relief(FIDR),a Japan-based non-governmental organization(NGO),launched a project to introduce system of rice intensification(SRI)methods and developed the community-based dissemination(CBD)model.One of the difficulties that the government and aid agencies generally face is to create an effective and sustainable dissemination model,when the newly-introduced technology is totally unfamiliar to targeted region and residents.Vietnam consists of 54 ethnic groups,and 14%of the population is comprised of 53 ethnic minorities,mainly living in mountainous areas.Almost 50%of them still live below the poverty line and are threatened by food shortage.Within their cultural context,it is hard to adapt to the new concepts of farming,and they are not used to paddy rice cultivation yet.As the result of the project,the model successfully reduced the food shortage of 1.5 months less in average with more than 4,000 households involved.The model is now turned over to the local government as a case of sustainable management practices.This paper aimed to examine what made the model effectively function.