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SRI-RICE
Introduction
(a copy of the
e-mail list posting)
-click
here for subscription information-
Date: Fri, 26
Aug 2005
To: SRI-RICE-L@cornell.edu (SRI-RICE-L)
From: SRI Group <sririce@cornell.edu>
Subject: SRI-RICE-L introduction
Dear SRI-RICE-L
subscriber,
If you are receiving this e-mail, you are now subscribed to SRI-RICE-L,
a worldwide electronic mailing list for persons who are interested
in monitoring and participating in the discussion of various aspects
of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) with colleagues throughout
the world. (SRI principles and methodologies are available on the
web at http://ciifad.cornell.edu/sri).
SRI-RICE-L is a moderated, electronic problem-solving discussion
group with over 100 members from over 20 countries. This discussion
group will enable you and others to follow and/or engage in discussions
of technical and other issues concerning SRI, to share ideas and
insights, or to get advice from peers around the world who are subscribed.
Discussions will be summarized and posted periodically on the SRI
website so that others can benefit from the information generated
and synthesized from the interactions among our growing community
of practice.
NOTE!! Some replies to messages from SRI-RICE-L will go to EVERYONE
on the list. As this list is moderated, comments not relevant to
everyone on the list will go only to the list managers. Some of
these If you would like to reply only to the person who wrote an
e-mail message, please paste the name of that person into the To:
heading. DO NOT HIT THE REPLY BUTTON unless you want to reply to
the entire list.
To unsubscribe from this list, send the following command to listproc@cornell.edu
:
UNSUBSCRIBE SRI-RICE-L Firstname Lastname (where Firstname Lastname
is your real name)
To make your time spent with the SRI-RICE-L discussion group most
productive and informative, Lucy Fisher and I will try to be facilitative
moderators, enabling subscribers to monitor and participate in informative
discussions as efficiently as possible, with an emphasis on problem
identification and solving. We invite your suggestions at all times,
both on the substance of what is being discussed and on procedure
and organization.
There are several types of discussions we can have on the list:
(a) GENERAL PROBLEMS AND ISSUES that subscribers have prioritized
(see below) for improving and refining SRI practice -- such as adaptations
for no-till cultivation or for upland farming systems, or results
with short-duration vs. medium-duration vs. long-duration varieties,
(b) SPECIFIC PROBLEMS sent in by subscribers -- such as what to
do about a certain pest such as the golden apple snail, or what
water management works with saline soils.
(c) OBSERVATIONS AND OPINIONS that subscribers would like to share
with others, to elicit their responses and thoughts. We may hold
these for a while before posting them to get a) and b) started.
Contributions that are like editorials or essays are welcome from
and for those who have time to write, read and respond, to enrich
the body of SRI thinking by these means.
Specific problems raised that elicit responses/suggestions of general
interest will be archived and posted on the web page for the benefit
of everyone, not just whoever asked the question. General problems
and issues will be discussed to advance both theory and practice,
which will make the discussions more complicated. I have worked
out a list of possible topics based on email traffic or field visits
to get out collective thinking started.
+ You are invited to ADD ANY TOPICS, or to add any questions or
concerns under topics already listed.
+ You are also invited to RANK THE TOPICS according to your own
interests and priorities, so we can start with those topics which
subscribers think are most important for their SRI work. Number
the topic you are most interested in with 1, and number as many
others as you are interested in. If you add any topics, number them
as well.
In early September, we will launch a discussion on the topic with
most expressed interest and will continue as long as subscribers
are contributing. The results of this discussion will be archived
and posted on the SRI home page, moving on to another topic. Meanwhile,
the electronic discussion group will be sharing information in response
to your specific questions.
TOPICS FOR POSSIBLE GROUP DISCUSSION: Please number these topical
areas in the rank-order of your interest, starting with 1. Number
as many as you are interested in seeing discussed. Feel free to
add and number additional topics. Examples of related issues and
questions are given under each topic to describe each in concrete
terms.
___ NURSERY ESTABLISHMENT AND MANAGEMENT: What methods and designs
are working best for SRI nurseries? What methods and designs have
shown certain disadvantages? How best to lay out and locate an SRI
nursery? What materials are best for construction? What soil mix
works best? What seed rate? What timing? What watering schedule?
How to handle drainage? What nutrient amendments if any should be
made? What shading or other management practices? What innovations
are beneficial, such as plastic trays? What are appropriate ratios
of nursery area to field area? How best to stagger seed planting
to have optimum age for transplanting? What is SRI experience with
the solarization of seedbeds to promote healthy seedlings? What
problems may be associated with aerobic seedbeds, e.g., multiplication
of blast inoculum, and how can these be dealt with?
SEED SELECTION AND PREPARATION: While SRI has not
stressed seed selection and treatment, this is recommended in most
booklets and videos on SRI. More attention should probably be given
to this part of the crop establishment process since it can enhance
yields by 20-30%. What are the best recommendations for seed selection,
treatment and preparation with SRI? What is the experience with seed
priming being promoted by Prof. David Harris (U of Wales) and others?
___ AGE OF SEEDLINGS AND METHODS OF TRANSPORT: What considerations
should govern decisions on when young seedlings should be transplanted?
How does this vary with soil characteristics? Temperature? Variety?
What materials and techniques can best be used for transporting young
seedlings? What timing? What methods for uplifting seedlings from
their nursery? What special methods for handling small seedlings?
___ METHODS OF LAND PREPARATION: In what ways, if any, should paddies
be prepared differently for SRI compared with preparation conventional
rice growing? How can land leveling be done more efficiently and effectively?
What is best timing or scheduling for land preparation? How can water
be best applied and saved in land preparation?
___ METHODS OF TRANSPLANTING: How are small seedlings best handled
in transplanting operations? What methods will minimize trauma to
seedling roots and preserve the seed sac intact? What are the best
implements and methods for marking the paddy soil for transplanting:
Rake? String? Roller-marker? Other techniques? Any other ideas on
how to minimize setback between removal from a nursery and planting
in the field?
___ PLANT SPACING: What spacings are optimum for different soil and
other conditions? How does optimum spacing change over time? What
evidence is there that SRI methods can 'improve soil quality' and
support wider spacing? What are the merits of the 'triangular' method
developed in China (three seedlings in one hill but 7-10 cm spacing
among them, and wider spacing between hills)? What are the merits
of rectangular or trapezoidal spacing, rather than square spacing,
as farmers have experimented with in China and India?
___ ORGANIC MATTER: What kinds of organic materials make the best
compost for SRI? What timing can be recommended for preparing and
applying compost? What facilities and methods can give the best compost,
and most efficiently (least cost)? What is experience with using mulch
rather than incorporating compost into the soil? What materials are
best for mulch? What timing and placement work best for mulch with
SRI? Is there evidence that SRI with organic matter increases earthworm
populations?
___ FERTILIZATION: How adequate is compost for meeting rice plant
nutrient needs, and under what conditions? What kinds and amounts
of inorganic fertilizer can be recommended with SRI, under what conditions??
What combinations and synergies of organic and inorganic fertilization
are possible with SRI? Are there particular nutrient deficiencies
that need to be addressed with nutrient amendments, such as zinc sulphate,
which is being used in some places in China? Magnesium deficiency
often occurs in dry soil, decreasing chlorophyll content in leaves,
but it may be remedied by water application. What are the possibilities
and performance of biofertilizers which utilized bacteria or mycorrhizal
fungi to enhance plants 'uptake of nutrients? What is experience with
effective microorganisms(EM) used with SRI in Sri Lanka? What other
options, like indigenous microorganisms' (IM) used with SRI in Myanmar?
___ WATER MANAGEMENT: What, if any, modifications, might be made in
the original SRI recommendation of applying a 'minimum of water' throughout
vegetative growth phase, and then maintaining a thin layer of water
(1-2 cm) after PI? Can or should reduced water applications (no flooding)
be continued through the reproductive phase, i.e., throughout the
whole crop cycle? Is alternate wetting and drying (AWD) as good as
-- or better than -- small daily applications? What modifications
should be made in water management schedules for different soils,
e.g., loam, clay loam, clay, sandy loam, etc.? How long and frequent
should paddies be dried to the cracking point during the vegetative
growth phase? What benefits, if any, can come from aerating the water
inflow to paddies? i.e., running water into paddies through an elevated
bamboo tube so that the splashing aerates the water flow (recommended
by Tefy Saina).
___ WEEDING: What are possibilities for motorization of weeding, i.e.,
mounting a motor on the mechanical weeder? What are best designs for
mechanical weeders? How many rows can a single mechanical weeder cultivate?
How does cono-weeder design compare with usual rotating hoe? What
other design features are beneficial? What is the optimum number of
weedings under different soil and other conditions? What are the economic
returns to doing more weedings than at least two? What are the benefits
from weeding that are attributable to active soil aeration compared
with elimination of weeds? What are the benefits from incorporating
weeds into the soil?
___ ALTERNATIVE METHODS OF CROP ESTABLISHMENTS: What are possibilities,
methods and benefits of no-till cultivation with SRI? What are the
possibilities, methods and benefits of raised beds (and no-till) with
SRI? What are the possibilities, methods and benefits of direct-seeding
with SRI spacing, etc. compared to transplanting young seedlings?
How much labor can mechanized direct-seeding save? What are effects
on yield? How can the making and maintenance of raised beds be mechanized?
___ LABOR: How can SRI be made less labor-intensive? (Many of the
questions raised above speak to this question.) How can training in
SRI methods be conducted or improved to speed up learning and accelerate
the transition from labor-intensity to labor-saving? What innovations
in nursery preparation, transplanting, weeding, water management,
etc. can most cheaply and quickly reduce SRI labor requirements?
___ PESTS AND DISEASES: What evidence is there that SRI methods reduce
plantssusceptibility and increase plant resistance to pests and diseases?
How could Francis Chaboussous theory of trophobiosisapply to SRI?
This theory proposes that plantssusceptibility to pest and disease
infection and resulting damage are the result of nutrient deficiencies
and/or imbalances that increase the availability of free amino acids
not synthesized into proteins and soluble sugars not incorporated
into polysaccharides, which is often associated with the application
of chemical fertilizer, esp. N, or synthetic, esp. chlorinated, pesticides,
as explained in his book, HEALTHY CROPS (2004). What evidence is there
that wider spacing of SRI plants reduces rat damage and also encourages
birdsreduction in insect damage, as reported from Sri Lanka?
___ ROOT SYSTEMS: What problems may develop with SRI rice root systems?
How can root inspection be used diagnostically to assess the merits
of SRI practices?
___ GRAIN QUALITY: What evidence is there that SRI paddy has higher
milling outturn? Initial evidence from China, Cuba, India and Sri
Lanka has suggested an increase of 10-15%, due to less shattering
(fewer broken grains) and less chaff (fewer unfilled grains). What
evidence to support claims of superior cooking quality and taste?
Is there any evidence of higher nutritional value of SRI rice in terms
of vitamins and minerals?
___ NON-IRRIGATED CROPPING: How can SRI concepts and practices be
adapted for growing upland/rainfed rice? With what results? What other
crops can SRI concepts and practices be adapted to? There are reports
of this for sugar cane (India), finger millet (India), winter wheat
(Poland), cotton (India), vegetables (India), even chickens (Cambodia).
All extrapolate the less can produce moreprinciple that underlies
SRI.
___ FARMING SYSTEMS: How can SRI be best fitted into profitable farming
systems, such as mushroom raising during the winter in China? How
can SRI contribute to the diversification of farming systems redeploying
land, labor and water from rice to other crops? What crop rotations
are most beneficial to use with SRI, e.g., with potatoes? How can
SRI methods be adapted for 'recessional' irrigation in farming systems
where flooding occurs and rice is planted as the water recedes?
___ CROP CYCLE: With SRI, how much shorter is the length of time for
crop maturation? (In Nepal, an average reduction of 15 days has been
recorded, along with more than doubling of yield.) How widespread
is this phenomenon? During what stage of crop development does the
reduction occur? Do long-duration varieties perform better with SRI
than short-duration or medium-duration varieties? How does use of
photoperiod-sensitive varieties compare with photoperiod-nonsensitive
varieties? What changes in management are needed for the former? How
should management be changed for the flooded (floating) rice as grown
in Cambodia and Vietnam?
___ TRADITIONAL VARIETIES: How well do SRI methods perform with traditional
(so-called unimproved) varieties? What if any modifications should
be made in SRI methods for growing traditional varieties? How can
be done to conserve rice biodiversity?
___ ABIOTIC STRESSES: What evidence is there that SRI rice can resist
wind and storm damage? Drought? Cold spells? Can we enhance resistance
to abiotic stresses?
___ EXTENSION METHODS AND STRATEGIES: What methods and strategies
have been most effective, and cost-effective, for spreading SRI adoption
and adaptation? What methods and strategies have proved to be ineffective,
or not cost-effective? How can farmer-to-farmer extension methods
be best encouraged and supported?
___ EQUITY EFFECTS: What evidence is there of favorable or unfavorable
effects of SRI adoption on women? What evidence is there of favorable
or unfavorable effects of SRI on smallholding farmers? What evidence
is there of favorable or unfavorable effects of SRI on socially marginal
groups such as ethnic minorities? What evidence is there of favorable
or unfavorable effects of SRI on landless laborers?
___ DISADOPTION: What evidence is there of disadoption of SRI methods
by farmers who have tried them? What are the reasons for this? How
much disadoption is there? How can it be reduced? What can we learn
from instances of disadoption?
This is a long list of topics on which specific knowledge and experience
can be mobilized and synthesized to improve SRI knowledge and practice
around the world. We cannot address all at the same time. SRI-RICE-L
will start with those topics on which there is most expressed interest
and concern. This list will evolve as discussions progress, and we
should be able to cover it within about two years. The information
generated will be archived on the web page for worldwide access and
use.
|
Tefy
Saina