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Many farming families across Asia struggle to grow enough rice to feed their families, let alone repay debts for things like seed and fertilisers. Editor Maureen Bathgate takes a look at an innovative rice-growing technique that is reaping big rewards.
Oxfam Australia has supported Wan Wong of Koh Preas, Cambodia, to be the model SRI rice farmer forhis village. He shows other farmers how to grow rice using SRI. Photo: Jerry Galea/OxfamAUS.
“If you come at the time the rice is seeding, it is wonderful to watch. The rice grows very quickly, in a very big bunch. One rice stem splits into two shoots, then four, then eight, each with hundreds of husks. It is like a miracle. I feel very excited when the rice is very big, very green and very healthy. It means my family will have more rice to eat and a better life.”
Chhim Yonn, a rice farmer from Koh Preas village in northern Cambodia, smiles broadly as he describes a new rice-growing technique known as the System of Rice Intensification or SRI.
Oxfam Australia is supporting farmers in Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka and India to grow rice using the SRI method and the results so far are astounding — in many cases, yields have doubled and production costs halved. Fewer farmers are in debt and families have more food to eat throughout the year.
“With the traditional rice technique we simply did not grow enough rice, even for consumption. We couldn’t sell any. We ate all that we grew,” says Wan Wong, the model SRI farmer for Koh Preas.
“Since using SRI, rice yields have doubled. With the old technique we planted about 5–6 times more seed than SRI but got only 90kg/200m2. With SRI we get 210kg/200m2.”
It is due to results like these that more and more rice farmers across Asia are steadily taking up SRI. While rice is one of the region’s most important crops, it has also become increasingly expensive to grow due to the cost of chemical fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides, the amount of seed required and the low yields being produced. Also, the stress associated with growing rice — mainly the financial costs, subsequent debt and severe food shortages — can lead to desperation and even suicide.
Developed in Madagascar in the 1980s, SRI allows farmers to produce rice in a much more affordable, environmentally-friendly way.
SRI uses organic compost, natural pesticides and hand-weeding instead of expensive chemicals and does not genetically modify the rice. Instead, by carefully managing planting, soil, water and nutrients, SRI uses half the water and much less seed than traditional rice-growing methods, promotes improved soil quality and stronger root and canopy growth, and produces less methane emissions and much higher yields.
As a result, rice-farming families have more food throughout the year and are sometimes able to store enough rice to plant the following year, thereby reducing cash outlays for subsequent crops. Some farmers have even been able to sell their rice. And while it often initially proves to be much more labour intensive than the traditional method, many farmers agree that the results are worth it.
“We have to spend more time for maintenance such as transplanting, weeding and controlling water,” says Mrs Sor Peth, an SRI farmer from Kampong Roteah village, in Cambodia, who is married with nine children. “But I feel it (SRI) is a good technique of rice-growing. We got double rice yield in the same paddies where we used the traditional method last year and some farmers got almost triple yield from this technique.
“SRI is very helpful for our farmers in the village because we face a lot of food shortages and the irrigation system is very poor here.”
Oxfam Australia began supporting trials of SRI in Laos in 2001. Early results from Laos saw SRI rice yields average 5.05 tonnes per hectare, compared to the Lao national average of 3.27 tonnes per hectare. Following this success, we extended SRI to farmers in more regions across Laos, as well as into Sri Lanka, Cambodia and India.
“SRI is very helpful for our farmers in the village because we face a lot of food shortages and the irrigation system is very poor here.”
In Sri Lanka, we are supporting about 1,000 marginalised farmers, mostly women-headed households, with SRI, providing training, seed, tools, weeders, technical support and loans.
One group of women in Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka, who pioneered the technique in their village, make their own compost using black sand, cow, chicken and goat manure, ash, leaves and straw.
Their first SRI crop returned 76 sacks of rice from 1.5 acres which they used for food, for seed, to pay back a loan of 10,000 Sri Lankan rupees and to buy items for their children.
“When we started out, the men said ‘women can’t harvest, you won’t get a good yield’,” group member Thayananthi says. “When we used natural pesticides and fertilisers, the men laughed at us.”
But all that has now changed. After their first successful crop, the men started to ask the women about SRI and their natural pesticides and fertilsers. When others in the village saw their crop yields, they wanted to use SRI techniques as well. The year after that first harvest, 20 other groups in the village, supporting 100 families, switched to SRI.
Since the introduction of SRI in Sri Lanka, average production costs among participating farmers have dropped from 9.69 rupees/kg to 4.57 rupees/kg, while average yields have increased from 70 bushels per acre to 120 bushels per acre. As a result, the percentage of farmers in debt has dropped from 82% to 10%.
That success has also had more far-reaching effects. After witnessing the achievements in Sri Lanka, one of our Indian partners, LAYA, introduced SRI to marginalised tribal communities in Andhra Pradesh. In the first year, 71 farmers across 36 villages were supported to plant 55.64 acres using SRI. They experienced yield increases of about 45% and now proudly share their SRI knowledge with other local farmers.
While research we have undertaken shows that SRI is not a universal solution and not suitable for all rice farmers, such as those who have large landholdings or farm in upland areas, it is proving to be a godsend for many poorer farmers — particularly those with large families and small landholdings who live in lowland areas or where water is scarce.
“Under the old technique I would get 5–6 sacks of rice from one paddy,” Chhim Yonn says. “Using SRI, I now get 12 sacks from the same paddy.
“While it is still not enough, our rice shortage is decreasing. Before, using the traditional method, the rice shortage lasted 5–6 months. Now the rice shortage lasts just 2–3 months.
“I will keep increasing how much I use SRI day-to-day and year-to-year as it produces much better results. This year, I am hoping to grow enough rice to feed my family all-year round.“
Mrs Sor Peth, of Kampong Roteah village, in Cambodia, and her family, inspect some of the SRI rice from their recent harvest. The family has doubled its rice yield since switching to SRI. Photo: Kong Thida/OxfamAUS.