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To: SRI-RICE-L@cornell.edu
From: Norman Uphoff
Subject: SRI-UPDATE #16 (March 15, 2008)

Dear SRI-RICE-L subscriber,

The following material is part of the SRI UPDATE series being sent out occasionally throughout the year. In this issue, you will find updates about numerous SRI efforts throughout the world. Enhanced versions of these e-updates and archives are also available on the SRI website along with information on how to subscribe for other SRI groups in other countries.

The numbered listing of sections provides an overview of this Update, so you can see quickly what items are included. More information is then given below, and full reports or pictures can be accessed from the SRI home page. To subscribe to the announcement list (INSTEAD of this interactive SRI discussion list to which you are currently subscribed), see http://ciifad.cornell.edu/sri/listservs/index.html#update.

-Norman Uphoff
for CIIFAD SRI Group

1. INDIA: The Hindu Reports Expansion of SRI Area in Tamil Nadu
2. INDONESIA: Broader Alliance of Organizations Supporting SRI
3. INDONESIA: Indonesian Association for SRI Launched
4. Joint Evaluation Being Planned with IRRI and Wageningen
5. AFGHANISTAN: Encouraging First-Year Demonstrations/Trials
6. NEPAL: SRI Methods Successful at 2500 Meters Above Sea Level
7. CUBA: Workshops Keep SRI Momentum Going
8. IRAQ: Gearing Up Extension Activities in 2008
9. MALI: SRI Introduced in Timbuktu Region
10. Recent Publications on SRI

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

1. INDIA: THE HINDU REPORTS EXPANSION OF SRI ARE IN TAMIL NADU
One of India’s major newspapers has had a series of articles on SRI spread in Tamil Nadu state:

• Jan. 1 article: The Minister of Agriculture V.S. Arumugam announced that about 20% of the state's rice area -- 420,000 hectares -- is under SRI cultivation in the 2007-08 season, with farmers having gotten an average 50% increase in yield using less seeds, less water, and needing less manual labor.
• Jan. 24 article: The Secretary of Public Works, S.Audiseshiah, said that the government expects to have half of the paddy area under SRI within several years given experience with SRI so far.
• Feb. 7 article: Farmer acceptance of SRI was reported as being very high under a World Bank project providing support for extension of SRI methods to 250,000 hectares in Tamil Nadu state.
• Feb. 14 article: A report from Erode district said that farmers' use of SRI had expanded from 500 hectares in 2006/07 to 14,000 hectares this year, with yields last year as high as 9.25 tons/hectare.
• Feb. 20 article: The Minister of Agriculture said that his state expects 750,000 hectares to be under SRI this year; SRI yields have been averaging 8 t/ha, an increase of about 1/3, with 11 t/ha achieved in some districts.
• March 9 article : The Secretary of Agriculture observed that use of chemical fertilizers is adversely affecting soil fertility, and that some Tamil Nadu farmers have gotten SRI yields of 12 tons/hectare.

2. INDONESIA:  BROADER ALLIANCE OF ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORTING SRI
Both the Directorate of Water Resources in the Department of Public Works (PU) and the Directorate of Land and Water Resource Management in the Department of Agriculture are supporting SRI training and extension, as is a major Indonesian foundation, MEDCO. Private sector support is coming from a number of companies including construction and operation of an SRI research center on the island of Lombok. NGO involvement is continuing strong, particularly from Aliksa Organic SRI Consultants and the Field Foundation. In West Java, about 10,000 farmers are using ‘organik SRI’ methods on 6,000 hectares. Both the Agriculture University at Bogor (IPB) and Andalas University in West Sumatra have research programs on SRI and are getting involved also in extension activities. A report on this emergence of multi-sector collaboration to promote SRI has been written by Norman Uphoff from his visit to the country in January and is available

3. INDONESIA: LAUNCHING OF A NEW ASSOCIATION FOR SRI (INA-SRI)
The Indonesian Association for the System of Rice Intensification (Ina-SRI) was established Jnauary 16, with an operational base at the Agricultural University of Bogor (IPB). Prof. Iswandi Anis, head of the Soil Biotechnology Laboratory in the IPB Department of Soil Sciences and Land Resources, is coordinating Ina-SRI together with Prof. Budi I. Setiawan in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The main current activity is Yahoo Group exchanges with over 60 members. The group operates in English although many postings are in Bahasa Indonesia. To subscribe to this electronic discussion group, see instructions on the Ina-SRI website (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Ina-SRI/) or send an e-mail to Ina-SRI-owner@yahoogroups.com

4.  JOINT EVALUATION BEING PLANNED WITH IRRI AND WAGENINGEN
Plans are proceeding for a collaborative evaluation of SRI vis-à-vis ‘best management practices’ to be done by scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Cornell University and Wageningen University. Representatives from the three institutions will meet at Wageningen the last week of May to put together a joint proposal to the Gates Foundation for a multi-year, multi-country evaluation that should resolve matters of scientific controversy about SRI. This will not produce any conclusions for several years, of course. Efforts to evaluate, evolve and disseminate SRI in the present ‘decentralized’ way will continue with government agencies, NGOs, universities, research institutions, private sector and farmers making of SRI what they can.

5. AFGHANISTAN: ENCOURAGING FIRST-YEAR TRIALS / DEMONSTRATIONS
The Aga Khan Foundation program operating in the north of the country has prepared a seasonal report from its first year of trials and demonstrations in Baghlan and Takhar provinces (see report). The plant growth achieved was impressive – as many as 120 tillers per plant at 96 days – but transplanting was done too late to capitalize upon the crops’ potential given the short growing season there. AKF has organized visits and training for dozens of farmers involved in its programs and for others working with the German NGO, Agro-Action, so concrete plans are set for an expanded and better-timed effort in 2008.

 6. NEPAL: SRI METHODS SUCCESSFUL AT 2500 METERS ABOVE SEA LEVEL
Chris Evans (Appropriate Technology Asia, ATA) reports that Mr. Singha Buddha at ATA’s demonstration and education center in Madana Village Development Committee (VDC) area has successfully used SRI methods at 2500 m altitude in southern Humla district of Nepal. He used 30-day seedlings because seedlings grow more slowly at such high altitude with colder temperatures; and he weeded three times, once with hand hoe and twice with hand weeding. After planting, it was six weeks until the monsoon rains began, however, watering was necessary only three times, once every two weeks, according to Evans.
 
 7. CUBA: WORKSHOPS KEEP SRI MOMENTUM GOING
A nation-wide workshop on SRI, known as SICA in Latin America, was organized by the Urban Agriculture Program November 21, 2007, with participation from across Cuba including from the Ministry of Agriculture’s Arroz Popular (Popular Rice) program for smallholder production and the Cuban Institute of Rice Research. Farmer reports on their SICA experience encouraged the programs represented to plan coordinated efforts to promote SICA in the coming rice season. See report; also report on workshop at a cattle cooperative in the town of La Ruda, San Jose de las Lajas, Havana province on February 8, 2008.

8. IRAQ: GEARING UP EXTENSION ACTIVITIES IN 2008
As reported already, an SRI Extension Committee was formed in 2007, and it reports demonstrations of activities at 25 locations during the year to acquaint Iraqi farmers, decision-makers and scientists about SRI potentials. In February 2008, training in SRI methods was planned for 2,000 farmers in Muthanna Province. (See report on the 2007 activities in Iraq). This report also includes results from experiments with mechanical transplanting, which gives good yield with reduced labor, although the highest yield was achieved with ‘standard’ SRI methods. Of interest outside Iraq may be the results that Khidhir Hameed and colleagues have gotten using clover as a green manure/cover crop in rotation with SRI. This practice improved soil characteristics and raised rice yields by an average of 24% on soils that are not otherwise very fertile.

 9. MALI: SRI INTRODUCED IN TIMBUKTU REGION
Africare, an NGO working on agricultural and rural development in the Timbuktu region on the edge of the Sahara desert, initiated SRI demonstration trials in 2007 managed by farmers working with its food security in the Goundam district. Erika Styger, who learned about SRI while doing her PhD thesis research in Madagascar with CIIFAD, provided technical assistance (see 2007 seasonal report). The control plot average was 6.69 t/ha, well above the usual yields in the area due to very good management, but the SRI yield averaged 8.98 t/ha, 34% higher. This was achieved without access to a soil-aerating mechanical weeder, now received, so it appears that still greater yield improvement will be possible. Africare has prepared plans for expansion of the demonstration trials in the next season and hopes to incorporate this effort into a longer-term project with USAID funding and Rodale Institute technical cooperation.

10. RECENT PUBLICATIONS ON SRI
At the Indian National SRI Symposium in October 2007, six new publications on SRI were presented to the Chief Minister of Tripura State and other guests and were distributed to Symposium participants:

• MORE RICE WITH LESS WATER: SRI – SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION, produced and published by the WWF Dialogue Project on Water, Food and Environment, Patancheru, 2007.
• FARMERS EXPERIENCES IN SRI CULTIVATION, edited by L.G. Giri Rao and P. Punna Rao, published with WWF support by Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad, 2007.
• TECHNICAL BULLETIN ON SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION – A WATER-SAVING AND PRODUCTIVITY-ENHANCING STRATEGY IN IRRIGATED RICE, edited by R. Mahender Kumar et al. and published by Directorate of Rice Research/Indian Council for Agricultural Research, Hyderabad, 2007.
• MORE RICE, LESS WATER: SMALL STATE, BIG RESULTS – EXPERIENCE OF SRI IN TRIPURA, INDIA, published by WWF with the Tripura Department of Agriculture, Agartala, 2007.
  
• SRI IN TRIPURA: RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT, written by Tripura Department of Agriculture and published by WWF for the 2nd National SRI Symposium, Agartala, 2007.
• TOWARDS A LEARNING ALLIANCE: SRI IN ORISSA, written by C. Shambu Prasad, Koen Beumer and Debasis Mohanty, published by WWF and Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, 2007.
• Two articles were published at the end of 2007 in peer-reviewed U.K. agricultural journals documenting SRI performance and impacts in eastern Indonesia and northern Myanmar, based on large samples (N=12,133 and N=612, respectively), both over four-year periods:
  --S. Sato and N. Uphoff, A review of on-farm evaluation of system of rice intensification methods in eastern Indonesia. CAB REVIEWS: PERSPECTIVES IN AGRICULTURE, VETERINARY SCIENCE, NUTRITION AND NATURAL RESOURCES, 2:54,  Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau International, Wallingford, UK (2007); and
  -- H. Kabir and N. Uphoff , Results of disseminating the System of Rice Intensification with Farmer Field School methods in Northern Myanmar. EXPERIMENTAL AGRICULTURE, 43(4):463-476 (2007).
• An article on risk reduction with SRI as well as particular advantages for the poor, written by Norman Uphoff, has been published in a leading French development journal, and also a chapter relating SRI to the global challenges of food and water security:
  -- Reducing the vulnerability of rural households through agroecological practice: Considering the System of Rice Intensification, MONDES EN DEVELOPPEMENT, 35:4 (2007) -- this can be acquired via the internet: http://www.cairn.info/
  revue-mondes-en-developpement-2007-4-p-85.htm or from the author upon request, and
  -- An opportunity to enhance both food and water security with the System of Rice Intensification, in FOOD AND WATER SECURITY, edited by U. Aswathanarayana, Taylor and Francis, London, 2007 (book is available on-line) or the chapter can be obtained from the author.
• In November, the Fact Sheet on SRI announced in Update #14 was published by the Pesticide Action Network for Asia and Pacific (PANAP), and it is now posted on PANAP’s website:  see: THE SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION: AN EFFICIENT, ECONOMICAL AND ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY WAY TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY