More Regional Issues of AgriCultures Network Magazines Focus on the System of Rice Intensification (SRI): China and Africa

There are now five regional and global editions of the AgriCultures Network's magazines that have their March issues focused on the System of Rice Intensification (SRI). The latest two of this group of publications that are dedicated to low external input sustainable agriculture are Baobab, an Africa-based magazine, and LEISA China, which is published in Chinese. (The March issues of the previous three, Farming Matters, LEISA India, and the Spanish language Latin American edition, LEISA Revista de Agroecología, have been reviewed in previous posts to our blog.)

水稻强化栽培体 (SRI) 的推广-  Download PDF

This March issue of LEISA China (vol. 7, no. 1) looks at the current use of and debates around System of Rice Intensification (SRI) as it moved from Madagascar to more than 50 countries and from rice to other crops. With the impressive dissemination of SRI, this is a fascinating case study of innovation from below, involving local authorities, "champions", extension agents and millions farmers

SRI: More Rice, Less Water -  Download PDF

Issue 66 of Baobab magazine captures the progressive adoption of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) outside Madagascar, focusing on its introduction, adoption and effectiveness in East Africa. As the quest for technologies that enable more efficient and environmentally friendly agricultural practices has intensified, SRI, which was defined in Madagascar little more than a decade ago, has emerged as a good option.  Although efforts to introduce SRI  have met with some initial resistance of both farmers and the scientific community, the methods still spread from farmer to farmer at an amazing rate and the methods are now well-supported by research. Also covered in this issue is the application of SRI methods to a number of other crops.

CHINA: Agricultural Water Savings with Adapted SRI Practices in Sichuan

SRI (System of Rice Intensification) has become Sichuan Province's preferred rice production method since 2005, with reports of the provincial yield record for rice being broken year after year. By 2010, the SRI area in Sichuan Province had reached over 301,067 ha, starting from 1,133 ha in 2004.  For the period 2004-10, the total additional benefit of using SRI methods in Sichuan was almost USD 320 million at the current rate of exchange, accompanied by reduced costs and less requirement of water.

Agriculture consumes 80% of the total water resources in Sichuan Province, which has a population of 88.6 million. A recent article by Zheng Jia-guo and his colleagues the Crop Research Institute, SAAS, Chengdu, details how they are adapting SRI to conserve water in that province as well as how this may change in the future. With modified SRI practices, both WUE (Water Use Efficiency) and IWUE (Irrigation Water Use Efficiency) were shown to be higher than with the traditional practices, by 54.2% and 90.0%, respectively, significantly reducing water consumption. [See more on how SRI is being adapted to conditions in Sichuan]

For more information on SRI in China, see our SRI China page.

Paddy and Water Environment Journal Publishes Special Edition on SRI

The journal Paddy and Water Environment has devoted its March 2011 issue (Volume 9, Number 1) to the System of Rice Intensification. For those who are interested in learning more about the science behind SRI as well as how SRI is progressing in various areas of Asia, Africa and Latin America, the March issue of the journal is online through SpringerLink. Included are six articles and nine technical reports from Afghanistan, China, the Gambia, Kenya, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Mali,  Pakistan, Panama, and Thailand as well as several review articles.

To see journal articles from other sources published during 2011, visit the journal articles page on our SRI-Rice website.