The System of Rice Intensification
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Thailand

• Progress and activities

• Reports and articles

• Workshops

• Extension material

Progress and Activities

• Interest in SRI Growing in Universities and Government in Thailand
In a report from a visit to Bangkok, July 18-20, Norman Uphoff describes interest from faculty and administration at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and Khon Kaen University as well as from the director of the government’s Rice Department. This interest is undergirded by results from the SRI demonstrations and evaluation of AIT faculty, staff and students in Roi-et Province under a grant from the Challenge Program for Water and Food.

• Green Manure Intercropping with SRI Methods proves promising in N.E. Thailand
A project of the Asian Institute of Technology and Thai Education Foundation, funded under the Challenge Program for Water and Food of the CGIAR system (Small Grant Project No. 564) has issued a second report on its participatory action research, for the period July 1-December 30, 2006, which documents results from farmer field school evaluations of SRI methods in Roi-et Province. The evaluations, managed by farmers and monitored by AIT/TEF staff, showed that 14-day seedlings outperformed 30-day seedlings under both just-moist and flooded conditions, by 25.1 and 16.5%, respectively. The just-moist conditions required only 1/3 as much water as conventional flooding.

The study also evaluated the interplanting of mung bean, cowpea or jackbean with SRI rice production. The first gave the highest yield of rice (5305 t/ha, KD6 variety). SRI rice yield was 13.6% higher with mung bean than when grown without the leguminous crop. Water requirements with intercropping were similarly 2/3 less than with farmers' practice. Rice yield in general with SRI was almost double that from farmers' practice. The AIT/TEF team is continuing with this work for a second year through September 2007.

• A five minute video about SRI and rice production in Northeast Thailand (Living Labs Mekong River Basin) is available on YouTube. It was produced by TVE Asia for CGIAR Challenge Program for Water and Food, which sponsored the project featured in the video.

• Abha Mishra brings in two grants for SRI research
As reported in the SRI '05 News section, Abha Mishra, a PhD student in Agriculture Systems and Engineering at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand, together with her team, won two competitive grants to study SRI in Thailand. She received a Travel and Study Grant Award from the Asia Rice Foundation USA, and was subsequently successful in the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food Small Grants Competition for support of  participatory-action research with farmer field school groups evaluating SRI in Cambodia.

Abha Mishra is also part of a team from the Asian Institute of Technology introducing SRI through action-research with villages in northeast Thailand, for which Dr. V. M. Salonkhe is the principal investigator. The project title is Increasing water use efficiency by using mulch under SRI management practices in Northeast Thailand, and a mid-project report as of June 2006 is available. A paper that she prepared with three colleagues working in FAO's Integrated Pest Management programme in South and Southeast Asia prepared for the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food Forum held in Vientiane, Laos, November 12-16, 2006 (see report on CPWF Forum).

• SRI Network Meeting (2005)
A meeting of the SRI Network in Thailand was held on February 15, 2005, at the Multiple Cropping Center (MCC) at Chiang Mai University. SRI progress was reveiwed for network members, which consists of 4 government groups and nine non-governmental organizations and projects. Future SRI Network coordination was turned over to the Alternative Agriculture Network.

• SRI Progress 2001-2003
Initial trials of SRI methods in Thailand by the Multiple Cropping Center (MCC) at Chiangmai University were not successful. MCC has continued working on SRI, however, and together with the McKean Rehabilitation Center (see MRC trials) in Chiangmai and other organizations in Thailand, a national SRI network has been formed, which was formalized at a national SRI workshop held in Chiangmai in May 2003.

In Thailand, 'the SRI effect' has not been seen as often or as dramatically as in other countries, the Thai experience being more like that in Laos than in Cambodia or Myanmar or even more so in Indonesia and the Philippines. These differences make it even more likely that soil biological factors are involved in the positive effects of SRI. It appears that when rice paddies are not kept flooded in Laos and Thailand, that nematode problems become more severe. Such a constraint does not appear (yet) to be a problem elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Workshops and Meetings

  • A national SRI workshop, held at Chaing Mai University, June 5-6, 2003, was organized by MCC/CMU (Multiple Cropping Center) in cooperation with ISAC, RRAFA and MRC.
  • A meeting of the SRI Network, organized by MCC/CMU (Multiple Cropping Center), was held at Chaing Mai University, February 15, 2005.

Reports, Articles and Related Information

Extension Information (and videos)

 
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last updated: August 7, 2007
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