From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is a method of increasing the yield of rice produced in farming. It was invented in the 1983 by the French Jesuit Father Henri de Laulanie in Madagascar. However full testing of the system did not occur until some years later. The productivity of SRI is under debate between supporters and critics of the system.

Contents 1 History and main ideas of SRI 2 Spread of SRI 3 Criticism 4 External links

SRI was first proposed in 1983 when a drought prevented farmers from flooding their paddy fields. De Laulanie noticed that the rice plants had increased growth. Further observation revealed that having seeds planted too close together decreases their growth. Further work developed the main practices of SRI, leading to its main theoretical ideas ^[1]:

• rice fields should be kept moist but not flooded
• rice plants should be spaced widely apart
• rice seedlings should be transplanted quickly when young

Further changes in management from "conventional" practice allow the increased yield, with decreased seed and water consumption. Furthermore SRI achieves this without the use of special seeds or other farming equipment such as chemical fertilisers.

The spread of SRI from Madagascar to around the globe has been credited to Norman Uphoff, the head of the International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Uphoff met officials from Association Tefy Saina, the non-governmental organisation set up in Madagascar in 1990 by de Laulanie to promote SRI. After seeing the success of SRI Uphoff became a proponent of the system, and in 1997 started to promote SRI in Asia.

Its principal, the greater spacing of seedlings, is now being experimented with in other crops such as sugar cane, finger millet and, in Poland, winter wheat.

However there are criticisms of SRI—while supporters of SRI claim that rice yield has been increased, critics have suggested that the increases are due to "poor record keeping and unscientific thinking" ^[2]. Critics have pointed out the lack of details on methodology of trials, along with publication without peer review, makes most published work on SRI useless in assessing its productivity against conventional methods. Some authors have suggested that SRI itself relies on the environment of Madagascar to be successful.

below is a picture gallery of SRI farming in Chattisgarh

SRI farming in Chattisgarh India photos by Jacob	SRI farming in Chattisgarh India photos by Jacob	SRI farming in Chattisgarh India photos by Jacob	SRI farming in Chattisgarh India photos by Jacob
SRI farming in Chattisgarh India photos by Jacob	SRI farming in Chattisgarh India photos by Jacob	SRI farming in Chattisgarh India photos by Jacob	SRI farming in Chattisgarh India photos by Jacob
SRI farming in Chattisgarh India photos by Jacob	SRI farming in Chattisgarh India photos by Jacob	SRI farming in Chattisgarh India photos by Jacob	SRI farming in Chattisgarh India photos by Jacob
SRI farming in Chattisgarh photos by Jacob	SRI farming in Chattisgarh photos by Jacob	weeding in SRI farms photos by jacob	weeding in SRI farms photos by jacob
weeding in SRI farms photos by jacob	weeding in SRI farms of chattisgarh jacob photos	weeding in SRI farms photos by jacob	weeding in SRI farms of chattisgarh jacob photos

• SRI at Cornell University
• Nature article on SRI
• BBC News article on SRI
• [htpp://angrau.net/research.html