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Pakistan
Progress and Activities
2009 Updates
Report on First Mechanization of SRI
Asif Sharif in Punjab Province has taken the materials available on the SRI website and has designed four machines/implements that enable him to cultivate with SRI concepts and adapted methods on a large scale. The results of the first full mechanization of System of Rice Intensification cultivation methods (called MSRI for "mechanized SRI") have been reported by Mr. Sharif, who devised/modified the implements to substantially reduce the labor requirements for capitalizing on SRI inherent production potentials – and to reduce the crop water requirements by 70% over usual levels of irrigation in Punjab state of Pakistan (see details of the MSRI process; additional photos of seedlings and transplanting are also available).
The SRI field of 20 acres (8 hectares) was first laser-leveled, so that water could be applied very evenly and sparingly. The first implement constructs raised beds mechanically (at right; click on photo to enlarge), with straight furrow on either side for irrigation (and for guiding other field operations). The planting operation is carried out by five laborers who ride a second implement, dropping 10-day-old seedlings into holes made mechanically in dry soil 9 inches apart (22.5 x 22.5 cm).  The planting machine (photo at left; also see video), with a water tank kept filled by a bowser, sprays water into each hole so that the roots became coated with enough soil to begin rooting. Then the first irrigation application is controlled to cover the whole field to a depth just 1 inch above the top of the raised beds. This further settles the seedling roots into the soil, but very shallow so as to induce more tillering.
From 10 days after transplanting, the raised beds were weeded at intervals by a mechanical weeder  (photo at right; also see video). This has blades set to remove weeds and aerate the soil between plants that are spaced 9 inches apart. The subsequent irrigations are made only into the furrows between the raised beds so that very little water is applied, and the subsoil movement of water is able to satisfy plant needs.
The Minister of Agriculture visited the field at the end of August, when average tiller number had reached 90 tillers per plant. When an evaluation team from the University of Agriculture at Faisalabad visited the field during early September, the counting of tillers was videoed, showing a plant with 118 tillers. Overall, plant growth was remarkable, with tillering reaching over 100 tillers per plant in many locations, and the number of tillers per m2 averaged 364. The yield, from 10 sampled locations within the field, averaged 13 tons/ha, with a fairly wide range. The grain harvested from 1 m2 crop-cuttings ranged from .743 kg to 2.192 kg. Grain weight across the samples was quite uniform, around 30 grams/1,000 grains (see trial results).
The intra-field variation reflected the impact that laser-leveling can have on soil fertility, as top soil gets scraped off higher portions and redistributed to lower ones. Where the soil fertility was good because topsoil was not reduced, the SRI crop performance was spectacular (21.9 t/ha). In some parts of the field, yield was reduced by a virus that left a large percentage of spikelets unfilled. This disease affected also other rice crops in the area.
This first season of fully mechanized SRI production thus gave very encouraging results, and Sharif has plans to improve performance in coming seasons as more experience is gained and further innovations are made. He is now applying his knowledge of agriculture and mechanization also to other crops, such as wheat, sugarcane, carrots, potatoes, etc. to which SRI concepts and practices are being extended.
Lok Sanjh Foundation Conducts SRI Training Sheikhupura District (May 2009)
As part of Lok Sanjh Foundation's (LSF) Year of Rice Action (YORA) activities, LSF organized a one day training workshop on System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in relation to Biodiversity-based Ecological Agriculture (BEA)  on May 26, 2009, at Sheikhupura District, the main Basmati growing area of Pakistan. The workshop was intended to promote SRI and BEA in Pakistani Punjab’s rice farming systems. Farmers from different areas of Sheikhupura who have been identified as key researcher farmers by LSF participated in the event. (see PANAP press release)
Among the many benefits of SRI noted at the workshop, an important feature of SRI noted was reduced water use. As the alkaline tube well water used for irrigation in the Pakistani Punjab is deleterious to soils, farmers cannot only reduce the production costs due to pumping but reduce the adverse effects of high water pH by using less water.
Irfan Ali, who previously attended the SRI Training in Cambodia, presented LSF results indicating that with less production costs, the SRI plot had lower production costs and had higher yield than the conventional plot did. Follow up plans were made with farmers to document their progress with SRI over the coming year.
2007-2008
Although the System of Rice Intensification
(SRI) began later in Pakistan than in the rest of
South Asia, it is now getting a good start with the involvement
of the On-Farm
Water Management wing (OFWM) of the Punjab State Department
of Agriculture and at the Agricultural University at
Faisalabad (UAF).
During a visit to Cornell University in September 2007, Mushtaq Gill, Director General for Agriculture (Water Management) in Punjab, Pakistan, gave a presentation entitled "Increasing Water Productivity of Rice through Adoption of System of Rice Intensification (SRI)" to CIIFAD's SRI Group. The presentation noted SRI seminars at University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) and in Okara Project area in Pakistan as well as the results of SRI trials at UAF. Participating farmers and area with SRI trials doubled during 2007.
2006
On-farm trials in Okara District Show Increases with Several Varieties
As observed
by Norman Uphoff during a October 2006 visit (see
trip report),
on-farm trials in Okara District south of Lahore
have an increment to yield of 30-45%, also with basmati varieties.
Water use has been reduced by about one-third, and seed requirements
by much more than that. Farmers expressed satisfaction with the
new methods, partly because SRI rice plants have shown themselves
to be much more resistant to lodging, seen after a recent severe
storm at the end of the growing season.
Yield was expected to be as good
as or higher than that on the control plots with conventional
practices while using 2/3 less water and 2/3 less seed.
This is good and important news for Pakistani farmers as water
becomes increasingly scarce. Some SRI plots that had gone without
water for as much as 22 days were nevertheless growing well,
attributable to their superior growth of root systems.
2005
Pakistan Becomes the 22nd Country to Report SRI Benefits
During 2005, Pakistan became the 22nd country from which we have evidence that SRI
methods provide multiple benefits. The ICIMOD
Newsletter (no. 46) from the International Centre for Integrated
Mountain Development, based in Kathmandu, reports on its introduction
of SRI last year into Hilkot village, Mansehra District, in the
Northwest Frontier Province, where its staff have been working
with villagers since 1999. The newsletter notes that "the
innovative SRI technique of transplanting single, very young
seedlings at wide planting intervals - as opposed to the traditional
more mature bunches of seedlings at a closer interval - has results
in a 50% yield increase. The skeptical farmers who transplanted
the rice found these results unbelievable."
During a visit
to Sri Lanka during September 2005, Dr. Mushtaq Gill,
director-general for on-farm water management in the Department
of Agriculture for Punjab Province, visited some farms using SRI
practices. Upon his return to Lahore, he initiated a number
of SRI trials and field demonstrations. Punjab Province
is the country’s major rice-growing region, especially for
prized basmati rice, which is a major source of national
export earnings.
Several
Pakistani NGOs had inquired about SRI over the as early as 2001.
The National Rural Development
Support Programme learned about SRI at an Asian Productivity
Organization seminar in Tokyo in 2003 and indicated an intention
to introduce SRI in its anti-poverty efforts.
Reports and Presentations
- Sharif, Asif. 2009. Mechanized System of Rice Intensification MSRI developed by FarmAll Technology – Pakistan. 2p.
-
PANAP. 2009 (May). Lok Sanjh Foundation Conducted a System of Rice Intensification Training in Pakistan. Press release on the Pesticide Action Network (PANAP) website. (retrieved 6/23/09)
- Uphoff, N.T. (2006) Report on a visit to Pakistan to review progress with SRI: October 17-21, 2006. Cornell International Institute for Food, Agric. and Devel. 9.p (203 KB pdf)
- Gill, Mushtaq. (2007, Sept. 25). Increasing Water Productivity of Rice through Adoption of System of Rice Intensification (SRI), a presentation given to the SRI group at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, by the Director General for Agriculture (Water Management) in Punjab, Pakistan. (2.38 MB pdf)
- Farooq, M., Basra, S. M. A., & Saleem, B. A. (2006, Sept. 4). System of rice intensification: a beneficial option. Dawn (online edition).
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