System of Rice Intensification

SRI (from en: System of Rice Intensification, also SICA of it: Sistema de Intensivo Cultivo Arrocero ) is a method of cultivation of rice which was described in 1983 by the Jesuit Henri de Laulanie in Madagascar. The head of the International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development, Cornell University, Norman Uphoff, contributed significantly to the establishment in 1997 of the method in Asia.

SRI potential

Through development of modern agricultural high-performance or high- yield varieties, the average income of the conventional wet cultivation method in India from 1.5-1.6 tons per hectare ( 1969) to 3 tons per hectare ( 2000) were increased.

From farmers in the district of Nalanda of the Indian state of Bihar, the income from previously 4 to 5 tons to 17 to 22.4 tons per hectare (2011) were increased by the SRI method 2011. " SRI is therefore considered by many as the most significant agricultural development over the past 50 years. "

SRI basic idea

The central tenets of SRI method are correspondingly Publications of Cornell University:

  • Rice seedlings to be planted young ( less than 15 days old with only two leaves) fast, flat and carefully. This minimizes the root injury and the " planting shock."
  • Rice plants are to be planted individually and at a distance. The improved root growth and leads to the increase in the photosynthetically active leaf area.
  • Rice fields should be only kept moist rather than saturated with water ( flood ). This improves root growth and support the growth and diversity of aerobic soil organisms.
  • The weed -inhibiting effect of flooding is eliminated and requires weeding, but what aerates the soil and promotes the aerobic soil organisms.

Criticism

The method is not without controversy. She is too labor-intensive to a degree that does not outweigh the added value of income and resource savings. Case studies that examined this relationship were subordinated to inaccuracy. Another criticism attributes the success of the method to a specific soil conditions in Madagascar.

On the other hand, it is noted that this criticism could also be an expression of economic interests, as the increase in yield of SRI method through smarter and more intensive culture care procedures in reducing the seed, water and fertilizer use is achieved.

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