Cultivating more rice with less water and fewer seeds : Newsletter - Sep.-Oct. 2008
As the debate on the global food crisis continues to simmer around the world, the need to find new solutions to boost agricultural productivity has come into focus. In India, where agricultural growth has remained stagnant at less than 2 percent since the 1990s, calls for a second green revolution have become louder. India has indeed ample scope to increase its yields of several major crops substantially. Its rice yields, for example, are about half those in Vietnam and Indonesia, and one-third of China’s. This scenario may change if innovative farming being practiced in several districts of Tamil Nadu is adopted on a larger scale.
Like much of India, agriculture is vital for the livelihoods of the rural people in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. More than half of the state’s population live in rural areas, and most of them depend on agriculture.
Intensive agriculture could further reduce rural poverty through higher yields to small producers, higher real wages to agricultural laborers, and increased income and employment opportunities.
While Tamil Nadu has recorded agricultural growth higher than the national average, policymakers and farmers alike in the state are pushing to lift farm productivity by promoting better technology and innovative farming practices..
Using SRI on just 25 percent of the conventionally farmed area could grow additional 5 million tons of rice
Innovative farming Through the World Bank supported project Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernization and Water-Bodies Restoration and Management (TN-IAMWARM), the state is taking actions to improve management of water and irrigated agriculture, which is critical for sustained agriculture growth. After all, Tamil Nadu is one of India’s driest states and agriculture requires vast amounts of water for irrigation. In fact, agriculture consumes 75 percent of the state’s water, a resource that is becoming scarcer because of climate change and increasing industrialization.
One of the project’s main achievements is the emergence of SRI, short for System of Rice Intensification, a set of new farming practices developed to increase the productivity of land, water, and other farm input. With limited scope to expand the area under cultivation, SRI is a promising alternative to the conventional way of flooded rice cultivation and is already addressing problems of water scarcity, high energy usage, and environmental degradation.
SRI is a combination of five important management techniques. It encompasses transplanting of 14-day young seedlings at wider spacing with only one seedling per hill, water management that keeps the soil moist but not continuously flooded – alternate wetting and drying, mechanical weeding through a rotary weeder, and higher use of organic compost as fertilizer.
“We are using younger seedlings of 14 days old as compared to 25-30 days old as in the case of conventional plantings,” said V.K. Ravichandran, Professor of Agronomy at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. “The young vigor of the seedlings is exploited in this SRI technique,” he added.
SRI system gaining popularity The SRI system sharply cuts the use of water by 32 percent, a crucial factor in a place like India. In India, rice alone accounts for 80 percent of water usage for agriculture. Farmers that have started using the SRI practice are already reaping the benefits. Singadavardan, a farmer in the state’s Villupuram district said the SRI system requires far fewer seeds, which saves him money. “In the normal way of planting, I would use about 30 kg of seeds per acre, but with this method, I’ve used only 3 kg per acre. On top of that, the labor also becomes cheaper,” he said.
SRI produces yields that are 40 to 80 percent higher than conventional rice cultivation
SRI, which was first developed in Madagascar some 25 years ago by a French Jesuit priest, is now gaining momentum in the state. During 2006-07, the first year of SRI rice cultivation in Tamil Nadu, only 4600 hectares were cultivated with this method. Today, almost 450,000 hectares or about 20 percent of the state’s rice cultivation area are under SRI.
If Indian farmers use SRI on just 25 percent of the conventionally-farmed area, estimates are they could grow additional 5 million tons of rice – enough to feed about four million families a year.
Tamil Nadu’s agriculture minister recently said that “if the agriculturists come forward to adopt this technology totally, which has been revolutionizing the paddy farming today, the entire rice needs of Tamil Nadu can be met.”
Gopalakrishnan, a farmer, says SRI is indeed catching on. “I have told people about this and they are also starting to cultivate in this method,” he said. Reports by thousands of farmers and practitioners around the world show that the SRI plants develop strong roots and stalks, and more tillers, with higher yields and even better rice quality. Rice plants under SRI methods have shown to better resist drought, water logging and wind damages. SRI produces yields that are 40 to 80 percent higher than conventional rice cultivation. “With the old system of planting rice I used to get 20 to 25 bags of rice per acre. Now I get 35 bags per acre,” said Uma, a farmer.
In the long term, hopes are that increased rice yields will boost nutrition, improve health, and drive the local economy.
RSS