This document outlines research on the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in Nepal. SRI is a method that promotes more productive rice plants through changes in plant, soil, water and nutrient management. Research in Nepal has found SRI can increase yields per unit of water, seed and fertilizer used. Institutions in Nepal have been conducting research on SRI since 1998, evaluating factors like varietal selection, spacing, age of seedlings and water management. Studies have found SRI can increase yields over conventional methods by 28-50%, using fewer inputs. Ongoing research focuses include water budgeting, heavy metals, soil microbiology, greenhouse gases and mechanization. Further research and collaboration between institutions is needed to

1. System of Rice Intensification:
Research Perspective in Nepal
Ram B. Khadka
Scientist
Regional Agricultural Research Station, Khajura, Banke, Nepal

2. Outlines
• Introduction
• Conceptual frame work
• Advantages
Research Perspective : National context

3. Introduction
The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is a “set of
insights and practices that change the management of
plants, soil, water and nutrients used in growing
irrigated rice.” SRI methods, promote the growth of
more productive and robust plants.
More simply: SRI is a package of practices especially
developed to improve the productivity of rice.
SRI involves intermittent wetting and drying of paddies
as well as specific soil and crop management practices.
It is civil society innovation.

5. Advantages of SRI?
 Increases rice yield per drop of
water, per kg of seed and
fertilizers.
 Tolerant to flooding, lodging and
drought.
 Suitable for organic production.
 Resource-conserving technology;
SRI is based on local resources
 Reduce GHG emissions (64% less
methane and 25% less nitrous
oxide compared to conventional).
 Reduces arsenic (which is toxic to
humans) in rice
Why SRI?
 Consumption demand and
prices for rice increasing
 The shortage of water
(climate change)
 Shortage of land suited for
rice production
About 50% farmers have
land holding less than 0.5
ha.
Farmers and scientist have
challenge to develop new
alternatives to increase the
sustainable productivity, in
context of climate change.
SRI would be the best
alternative.

6. SRI Research Focus in Nepal
 Varietal selection
 Spacing
 Age of seedling
 Water management
 Adoption and socio-economic study

7. Institutions involved in research
 Nepal Agricultural Research Council
 Tribhuvan University/Institute of Agriculture
and Animal sciences
 Department of Agriculture/ District Agriculture
Development Offices
 I/NGOs
 Civil society organizations
 Farmers' groups

8. Historical Background
 First SRI trials conducted in 1998 by NARC at Khumaltar
 2001: CIMMYT and Appropriate Technology Asia (ATA) began trials at
sites near Kathmandu and at NWRP, Bhairahawa, on-station and on-farm.
 2002-2003: Farmer Field Schools in the Sunsari-Morang irrigation project
supported by DFID in the terai.
 2005: a series of farmer's field trials started conducted at Morang
 2004 – 2005: Program on SRI by PARDYP (People and Resource
Dynamics in Mountain Watersheds of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region)
sponsored by ICIMOD
 2010-11: Farmers' field trials at far-western Nepal under EU/FF Project.
 2012: Farmers’ field trials was conducted at Bajhang district proving the
relevance of SRI in high-value aromatic rice landraces
 2012-2015: RARS, Khajura and ARS, Dailekh conducting on-station
evaluations of different components of SRI.
 2008-2014: Five master's thesis research conducted under Tribhuwan
University, Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences, Rampur.

9. Performance of SRI
No promising results obtained from Khumaltar
trials in 1999.
Significantly higher grain yield and tiller were
obtained in 20х20 cm and young seedling
compared to narrower spacing and old seedlings
in Khumaltar (Evans and Justice, 2002)
In 2001, on-station and on-farm experiments
conducted at RARS, Tarahara showed yield
increment up to 8 mt/ha in Manshuli variety in SRI.
More than 2 times increased in yield as compared
to conventional in farmer's field trials under the
Morang-Sunsari Irrigation project.

10. Cont….
Series of experiments were conducted both on-farm and
on- station at NWRP, Bhairhawa (Bhatta & Tripathi, 2005).
Conclusion of Bhairahawa experiments were:
 There is tremendous potential and scope for
increasing rice yields by SRI.
 28-49% yield gain was observed over FP.
 SRI with closer spacing of 20x20 cm to 30x30 cm
performed better than wider spacing of 40x40 cm.
 Three rotary weedings followed by hand weeding
found effective in SRI.
 10-day-old seedlings give better yield.
 Two seedlings /hill was slightly better than one
seedling /hill

11. Cont….
40-50% yield increase in SRI compared of
available best practices in the trials conducted
by PARDYP, with 75% reduction in seed
requirements and 50-75% reduction in water
use.
SRI with mechanization gave 55% higher yields
than conventional cultivation, with 27%
reduction in costs of cultivation in the trials
conducted at Morang district (Uprety et al.)

12. Yield different of SRI with conventional practice at
different locations
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Riceyield(t/ha)
Districts/organizations
SRI yield (t/ha)
Conventional yields (t/ha
Source: Uprety 2008

13. Weeding Effect
412 farmers in Morang district using SRI
methods in monsoon season, 2005
Data show that WEEDINGS can raise yield
Ave. SRI yield = 6.3 t/ha, vs. control = 3.1 t/ha
-----------
No. of No. of Average Range
weedings farmers yield of yields
1 32 5.16 (3.6-7.6)
2 366 5.87 (3.5-11.0)
3 14 7.87 (5.85-10.4)
Uperty and Uphoff, 2008

14. 0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
<4 t/ha 4.1-6 t/ha 6.1-8 t/ha >8.1 t/ha
Percentageoffarmers
Yield category (t/ha)
Yield distribution of rice by SRI method accordingto
number ofweedings,2005.
One Weeding
Two Weeding
Three Weeding
Uprety et al. 2005

15. Effects of methods of cultivation on farmers’ fields,
Kailali, 2010
Method of
cultivation
Tillers per
hill
Effective
tillers per m2 TGW Yield
SRI 35.46a 340.50a 21.55a 7.58a
Conventional 6.20b 146.1b 20.98b 4.01b
LSD 1.44 7.23 0.28 0.14
Dahal and Khadka, 2013

16. Effects of varieties on SRI in farmer’s field trials, Kailali,
June-November, 2010
Varieties Tillers per hill Effective tillers
per m2
TGW Yield
Sarju #52 20.63bc 249.7b 25.45a 5.69c
Sunaulo Sugadha 17.50d 212.20c 18.76e 6.00b
Radha #4 18.88cd 212.60c 24.55b 5.025d
Jaya 20.63bc 242.90b 21.01c 5.86bc
Mithila 22.75ab 254.90b 18.00f 5.72c
Sabitri 24.63a 287.5a 19.81d 6.47a
LSD 2.510 12.52 0.49 0.25
SEM 0.87 4.35 0.17 0.08
Khadka and Acharya, 2011

17. Effect of different methods of crop establishment
3.36
3.73
6.4
6.61
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Wet DSR DRY DSR Conventional SRI
Yield(Mt/ha)
Grain Yield
Straw Yield
Khadka, 2015

18. Different methods of cultivation
Dhital, et. al. 2015

19. Effect of varieties in SRI and conventional
transplanting at farmers’ field trials, Kailali, 2011
7.8
6.9
8 8.2
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Sunaulo
Sugandha
Radha #4 Jaya Sabitri
SRI
Planting
Normal
Planting
Khadka & Dahal, 2012, unpublished

20. Effect of variety and method of cultivation in farmers'
fields, Bajhang district
Treatments Hills per m2 Tillers
per m2
Grain yield
(t ha-1)
Methods of Cultivation
SRI 16b 305.19 7.60
Conventional 37.04a 273.23 4.46
F0.05 ** * **
Varieties Varieties
Interaction Effects
SRI×Thapachini 16.00b 358.00a 8.11a
SRI×Khumar-4 16.00b 312.00ab 7.87a
SRI×Hansraj 16.00b 245.60bc 6.81ab
Conv.×Thapachini 35.57 a 318.70a 4.25c
Conv.×Khumar-4 39.00a 286.10abc 4.93bc
Conv.×Hansraj 36.57a 214.90c 4.21c
F0.05 7.7 72.9 *
SEm± 1.26 378.8 0.34
LSD value * * 2.08

21. Effect of cultivation practice in
promising rice lines in mid hills, Dailekh
Varieties
Normal SRI Normal SRI
Tillers per hill Yield (mt/ha)
NR 10676-B-1-3-3-3 11 12 6.3 7.87
NR 10490-8-9-3-2-1
10 15 6.2 7.07
Khumal-10 8 8 6.49 6.8
Source: Ghimire et al., 2015, unpublished data

22. Performance of SRI in drought-tolerant varieties
6.54
7.59
7.87
6.31
6.07 5.96
0.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
8.00
9.00
Sukh-3 Radha-4 Sukha-5 Sukha-4 Sukha-1 Sukha-6
Grain weight (mt/ha)
Straw yeild (mt/ha)
Khadka et al., 2015, unpublished

23. Socio-economic study
A farmers' field survey conducted by RARS,
Tarahara team at Dhanusha in 2008-09 showed
early and summer paddy SRI average yields to be
8.1 and 5.74 mt/ha, respectively, while under
normal practices the early and summer rice yields
were 3.45 and 3.70 mt/ha (Bhuje et al. 2010)

24. Research Constraints
• Institutional commitment
• Technical know-how
• Lack of advanced equipment for taking data:
chlorophyll meter, leaf area meter, root and
shoot physiological study, GHG emission
chambers, gas chromatography
• Knowledge and information-sharing
• Funding

25. Future Research Focuses
 Water budgeting
 Heavy metal toxicity
 Soil microbiota profiling
 Root and shoot architecture and physiology
 Social dynamics
 Greenhouse gas emissions (methane and nitrous
oxide)
 Mechanization (weeders and transplanting or
marking)

26. Way forward
• Research consortium among different
organizations and researchers may be
necessary for improving respective and
collective efforts

27. Thanks