Opportunities for
Improving Asian Agriculture
Agroecologically:
Observations from the
System of Rice Intensification
ECHO Conference on Asian Agriculture
Chiangmai – September 21, 2009
Norman Uphoff
Cornell University

What is Agroecology?
Most simply: a superdiscipline based on
concepts/ principles/insights/practices
that rely on changes in the management
of plants, soil, water & nutrients
-- to capitalize on existing genetic
potentials in crops, animals and soil
systems, rather than on (a) changes in
genetic potentials, or (b) external inputs
-- to get more productive phenotypes
thru ecological dynamics/interactions

Agroecological principles
understand and manage
crops and animals
not as isolated species --
but as organisms that always
function (having evolved)
in an ecological context

‘Ascending Migration of Endophytic Rhizobia,
from Roots and Leaves, inside Rice Plants and
Assessment of Benefits to Rice Growth Physiology’
Feng Chi et al.(2005), Applied and Envir. Microbiology 71, 7271-7278
Rhizo-
bium test
strain
Total plant
root
volume/
pot (cm3
)
Shoot dry
weight/
pot (g)
Net photo-
synthetic
rate
(μmol-2
s-1
)
Water
utilization
efficiency
Area (cm2
)
of flag leaf
Grain
yield/
pot (g)
Ac-ORS571 210 ± 36A
63 ± 2A 16.42 ± 1.39A
3.62 ± 0.17BC
17.64 ± 4.94ABC
86 ± 5A
SM-1021 180 ± 26A
67 ± 5A 14.99 ± 1.64B
4.02 ± 0.19AB
20.03 ± 3.92A
86 ± 4A
SM-1002 168 ± 8AB
52 ± 4BC 13.70 ± 0.73B
4.15 ± 0.32A
19.58 ± 4.47AB
61 ± 4B
R1-2370 175 ± 23A
61 ± 8AB 13.85 ± 0.38B
3.36 ± 0.41C
18.98 ± 4.49AB
64 ± 9B
Mh-93 193 ± 16A
67 ± 4A 13.86 ± 0.76B
3.18 ± 0.25CD
16.79 ± 3.43BC
77 ± 5A
Control 130 ± 10B
47 ± 6C 10.23 ± 1.03C
2.77 ± 0.69D
15.24 ± 4.0C
51 ± 4C

Agroecological principle #1:
SUPPORT the recycling of
biomass to optimize nutrient
availability in the soil and balance
nutrient flows in the soil and
biosphere over time

Agroecological principle #2:
PROVIDE the most favorable
soil conditions which enhance
soil structure and the
functioning of soil systems, esp.
by managing organic matter and
by enhancing soil biotic activity

Agroecological principle #3:
MINIMIZE losses of energy
and other growth factors
within plants’ microenvironments
-- both above & below
ground -- in ways that can
maximize resource-use
efficiency

Agroecological principle #4:
DIVERSIFY the species and
the genetic resources within
agroecosystems, both
over time and over space

Agroecological principle #5:
ENHANCE beneficial biological
interactions and synergies
among all of the components of
agrobiodiversity, thereby
promoting key ecological
processes and services
(Reijntjes et al., 1992; Altieri 2002;)

Agroecology can be summarized in
these recommendations:
1. Enhance the life in the soil
(in soil systems), recognizing the
precedence of soil biology which
shapes soil’s chemistry and physics
2.Improve the growing environment
(E) of crops in order to induce
more productive phenotypes from
any given crop genotype (G)

CUBA: rice plants of
same variety (VN 2084)
and same age (52 DAP)

What is SRI?
Most simply, SRI is a set of concepts/
principles/insights/practices that
change the management of
plants, soil, water & nutrients:
(a) to produce larger, more effective,
longer-lived ROOT SYSTEMS, and
(b) to enrich the LIFE IN THE SOIL
to achieve more productive,healthier
PHENOTYPES from any GENOTYPE

CAMBODIA: Farmer in
Takeo Province: yield of
6.72 tons/ha > 2-3 t/ha

NEPAL:
Single rice
plant grown
with SRI
methods,
Morang
district

MALI: Farmer in the
Timbuktu region showing
the difference between
‘normal’ rice and SRI
rice plant
2007: 1st year trials -
SRI yield 8.98 t/ha
control yield 6.7 t/ha
(best mgmt practices)
2008: trials expanded
with 5 farmers in 12
villages doing on-farm
comparison trials (N=60)

SRI Control
Farmer
Practice
Yield t/ha* 9.1 5.49 4.86
Standard Error (SE) 0.24 0.27 0.18
SRI compared to
Control (%)
+ 66 100 -11
SRI compared to
Farmer Practice (%)
+ 87 + 13 100
Number of Farmers 53 53 60
• * adjusted to 14% grain moisture content
Rice grain yield for SRI plots, control plots,
and farmer-practice plots,
Goundam circle, Timbuktu region, 2008

Indonesia:
Rice plants
same variety
and same age
in Lombok
Province

Indonesia: Results of on-farm
comparative evaluations of SRI
by Nippon Koei team, 2002-06
• No. of trials: 12,133 (over 9 seasons)
• Total area covered: 9,429.1 hectares
• Ave. increase in yield: 3.3 t/ha (78%)
• Reduction in water requirements: 40%
• Reduction in fertilizer use: 50%
• Reduction in costs of production: 20%
(Sato and Uphoff, CAB Review, 2007)

AFGHANISTAN: SRI field in Baghlan Province, supported by
Aga Khan Foundation Natural Resource Management program

SRI field in Baghlan Province, Afghanistan at 30 days

SRI rice plant @
72 days after
transplanting –
133 tillers
Yield was
calculated at
11.56 tons/ha

IRAQ: Comparison trials at Al-Mishkhab Rice Research Station, Najaf

SRI originated in Madagascar
Initially called le Systéme
de Riziculture Intensive
(in Latin America, SICA)
by Henri de Laulanié, SJ,
who, by 1984, assembled
SRI’s counterintuitive
practices after 2 decades
of working with small,
poor farmers to improve
their production and
incomes without requiring
any dependence on inputs

Fr. de Laulanié
making field visit
shortly before his
death in 1995

MADAGASCAR: Rice field grown with SRI methods

Rice sector needs in 21st
century
(IRRI/DG, Intl. Year of Rice, 2004)
• Increased land productivity-- higher yield
• Higher water productivity -- crop per drop
• Technology that is accessible for the poor
• Technology that is environmentally friendly
• Greater resistance to pests and diseases
• Tolerance of abiotic stresses (climate change)
• Better grain quality for consumers, and
• Greater profitability for farmers

SRI practices can meet all these needs:
• Higher yields by 50-100%, or more
• Water reduction of 25-50% (also rainfed)
• Little need for capital expenditure
• Little or no need for agrochemical inputs
• Pest and disease resistance
• Drought tolerance, and little/no lodging
• Better grain quality, less chalkiness
• Lower costs of production by 10-20% →
resulting in higher income for farmers

Additional benefits of SRI practice:
• Time to maturity reduced by 1-2 weeks
• Milling outturn is higher by about 15%
• Other crops’ performance is also being
improved by SRI concepts and practices,
e.g., wheat, sugar cane, millet, teff, others
• Human resource development for farmers
through participatory approach
• Diversification and modernization of
smallholder agriculture; can adapt to larger-
scale production through mechanization

Requirements/constraints for SRI:
For best results, we need:
•Water control to apply small amounts
reliably (rainfed SRI now being developed)
•More labor at first during learning phase;
but SRI can even become labor-saving
--also, SRI practices can become
mechanized
•Skill and motivation of farmers is key!
•Crop protection in some situations
SRI is a matter of degree more than of kind

SRI is Ideas/Insights; not Technology
1. Use young seedlings to preserve growth potential
-- however, direct seeding is becoming an option
2. Avoid trauma to the roots --transplant quickly,
carefully, shallow; no inversion of root tips upward
3. Give plants wider spacing – one plant per hill,
square pattern for better root/canopy growth
4. Soil is kept moist but unflooded – mostly
aerobic, not continuously saturated (hypoxic)
5. Actively aerate the soil as much as possible
6. Enhance soil organic matter as much as possible
Practices 1-3 support more PLANT growth; practices 4-6
enhance the growth and health of ROOTS and soil
BIOTA

Two Paradigms for Agriculture:
• GREEN REVOLUTION strategy was to:
(a) Change the genetic potential of plants, and
(b) Increase the use of external inputs --
more water, more fertilizer and biocides
• SRI (AGROECOLOGY) changes instead the
management of plants, soil, water & nutrients:
(a) Promote the growth of root systems, and
(b) Increase the abundance and diversity of
soil organisms to better enlist their benefits
The goal is to produce better PHENOTYPES

SRI
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
IH H FH MR WR YRStage
Organdryweight(g/hill)
CK
I H H FH MR WR YR
Yellow
leaf and
sheath
Panicle
Leaf
Sheath
Stem
47.9% 34.7%
“Non-Flooding Rice Farming Technology in Irrigated Paddy Field”
Dr. Tao Longxing, China National Rice Research Institute, 2004

China National Rice Research Institute
(CNRRI): factorial trials, 2004 & 2005
using two super-hybrid varieties --
seeking to break ‘plateau’ limiting yields
Standard Rice Mgmt
• 30-day seedlings
• 20x20 cm spacing
• Continuous flooding
• Fertilization:
– 100% chemical
New Rice Mgmt (~SRI)
• 20-day seedlings
• 30x30 cm spacing
• Alternate wetting
and drying (AWD)
• Fertilization:
– 50% chemical,
– 50% organic

Average super-rice YIELD (kg/ha) with new rice
management (SRI) vs.standard rice management
at different PLANT DENSITIES ha-1
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
10000
150,000 180,000 210,000
NRM
SRM

0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
0 100 200
N uptake (kg/ha)
Grainyield(kg/ha)
Grain yield SRI
(kg/ha)
Grainyield Conv
(kg/ha)
Poly.:Grain yield
SRI (kg/ha)
Poly.: Grain yield
Conv. (kg/ha)
Rice grain yield response to N
uptake
Regression relationship between N uptake and grain
yield for SRI and conventional methods using
QUEFTS model (Barison, 2002) – same for P and K

SRI LANKA: Rice paddies,with same soil, same variety,
same irrigation system and same drought, three weeks
after water was stopped: conventional (left), SRI (right)

Journal of Sichuan Agricultural Science and Technology
(2009), Vol. 2, No. 23
“Introduction of Land-Cover Integrated Technologies with Water
Saving and High Yield” -- Lv S.H., Zeng X.Z., Ren G.H., Zhang F.S.
Yield increase in normal year is 150-200 kg/mu (2.25-3.0 t/ha);
while in drought year, increase is 200 kg/mu or more (≥3.0 t/ha)
• In a normal year, net income with the new methods can be
increased from 100 ¥/mu to 600-800 ¥/mu, i.e., from $220/ha
to >$1,500/ha, while
• In drought year with the new methods, net income can go from
a loss of 200-300 ¥/mu to a profit of 300-500 ¥/mu, i.e., from a
loss of $550/ha to a profit of $880/ha

VIETNAM: Farmer in Dông Trù village – after typhoon

Reduction in Diseases and Pests
Vietnam National IPM Program evaluation
based on data from 8 provinces, 2005-06
Spring season Summer season
SRI
Plots
Farmer
Plots
Differ-
ence
SRI
Plots
Farmer
Plots
Differ-
ence
Sheath
blight
6.7% 18.1% 63.0% 5.2% 19.8% 73.7%
Leaf blight
-- -- -- 8.6% 36.3% 76.5%
Small leaf
folder *
63.4 107.7 41.1% 61.8 122.3 49.5%
Brown
plant
hopper *
542 1,440 62.4% 545 3,214 83.0%
AVERAGE 55.5% 70.7%
* Insects/m2

PeriodPeriod Mean max.Mean max.
temp.temp. 00
CC
Mean min.Mean min.
temp.temp. 00
CC
No. ofNo. of
sunshine hrssunshine hrs
1 – 151 – 15 NovNov 27.727.7 19.219.2 4.94.9
16–3016–30 NovNov 29.629.6 17.917.9 7.57.5
1 – 15 Dec1 – 15 Dec 29.129.1 14.614.6 8.68.6
16–31 Dec16–31 Dec 28.128.1 12.212.2** 8.68.6
Meteorological and yield data from ANGRAU
IPM evaluation, Andhra Pradesh, India, 2006
SeasonSeason Normal (t/ha)Normal (t/ha) SRI (t/ha)SRI (t/ha)
Rabi 2005-06Rabi 2005-06 2.252.25 3.473.47
Kharif 2006Kharif 2006 0.21*0.21* 4.164.16
* Low yield due to cold injury (see above)
*Sudden drop in min. temp. during 16–21 Dec. (9.2-9.8o
C for 5 days)

Measured Differences in Grain Quality
Conv. Methods SRI Methods
Characteristic (3 spacings) (3 spacings) Difference
Chalky kernels
(%)
39.89 – 41.07 23.62 – 32.47 -30.7%
General
chalkiness (%)
6.74 – 7.17 1.02 – 4.04 -65.7%
Milled rice
outturn (%)
41.54 – 51.46 53.58 – 54.41 +16.1%
Head milled
rice (%)
38.87 – 39.99 41.81 – 50.84 +17.5%
Paper by Prof. Ma Jun, Sichuan Agricultural University,
presented at 10th conference on “Theory and Practice for
High-Quality, High-Yielding Rice in China,” Haerbin, 8/2004

Status of SRI: As of 1999
Known and practiced only in Madagascar

Spread of SRI demonstrations and use in 10 years
Up to 1999 Madagascar
1999-2000 China, Indonesia
2000-01 Bangladesh, Cambodia,
Cuba, India, Laos, Nepal, Myanmar,
Philippines, Gambia, Sierra Leone,
Sri Lanka, Thailand
2002-03 Benin, Guinea, Mozambique,
Peru
2004-05 Senegal, Mali, Pakistan,
Vietnam
2006 Burkina Faso, Bhutan, Iran, Iraq,
Zambia
2007 Afghanistan
2008 Brazil, Egypt, Rwanda, Ecuador,
Costa Rica, Timor Leste
2009 Ghana . . .

THANK YOU
• Web page:
http://ciifad.cornell.edu/sri/
• Email: ciifad@cornell.edu or
ntu1@cornell.edu