Extension Messages that have been merely extrapolated from high input systems have often resulted in subsistence farmers incurring huge debts because the costs of the associated technologies (hybrid/GM seed, fertilisers and pesticides) have often exceed the value any increased yields.
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| Piara Begum storing her rice seed |
Evidence collected by international NGOs (2010) from almost one million smallholders who have been practising low-input Systems of Rice Intensification (SRI) in four countries (Cambodia, India, Mali and Vietnam) suggests that a paradigm shift is needed before research and extension can truly serve the world’s poorest farmers: Compared to conventional rice farmers, SRI farmers more than doubled their yields by significantly reducing seed rates and transplanting much earlier into wider spacings; household incomes are said to have risen by around 50%. Crucially the SRI cropping systems require less water, thereby emitting less methane; the crops are more resistant to both pests and lodging and have shorter growing seasons. SRI needs neither improved seed varieties nor chemical fertilisers. The abundant weed growth is dealt with by using locally-adapted, weeding machines.
Recent work (2012) has confirmed this trend of increasing productivity among SRI rice farmers, during two seasons, in Mwea Irrigation Scheme, Kenya. This work also highlighted positive social effects such as women and children being freed from the drudgery of weeding by men eager to use mechanical weeding machines, farmers’ saved seed being valued by the SRI system and farmers being empowered to do household record-keeping and cost-benefit analysis.
These exciting results should spur on applied, pro-poor research into some of the unanswered questions that have been raised by SRI activities globally:
- To what extent are SRI farmers reducing GHG emissions?
- Which other crops could benefit from this system?
- What are the positive microbial interactions that occur in SRI, organically amended soils?
- What accounts for the increased tolerance to pests in SRI?
