This document summarizes a final workshop organized by ACISAI and AIT on sustaining and enhancing the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in the Lower Mekong River Basin. It provides an overview of the completed SRI-LMB project and recommendations for next steps. The key points are: 1) The SRI-LMB project implemented SRI practices across four countries from 2013-2018, increasing yields, profits, and resilience for smallholder farmers. 2) Project activities included participatory research, demonstrations, capacity building, and knowledge sharing through various mediums. 3) Results analysis found increases in key metrics like yield, profitability, labor efficiency, and reductions in

1. Final Workshop
Organized by the ACISAI, AIT
(01-02 November 2018, NOVOTEL BANGKOK SUKHUMVIT 20, Thailand)
SUSTAINING AND ENHANCING THE MOMENTUM FOR INNOVATION
AND LEARNING AROUND THE SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION
(SRI)
IN THE LOWER MEKONG RIVER BASIN (SRI-LMB)
Project achievement and the “way forward”

2. AIT-led, EU financed SRI-LMB project
 Implemented in food-insecure, rainfed rice production
areas of the Lower Mekong
River Basin countries; Lao,
Cambodia, Vietnam, and
Thailand (2013-18)
 Brought together various
stakeholders working at
global, regional, national, and local levels;
 Increased crop yield, productivity and profitability on
sustainable basis at smallholder farmers’ fields and,
 Significantly contributed towards enhancing the resilience
of rainfed farmers confronting climate change variability

3. Completed a wide range of activities, within a short time
 Farmers’ participatory action research (FPAR)
 Field experiments and demonstrations on low-cost
technological options
 Local adaptation of
SRI practices and
 Associated capacity
building and experience
sharing were numerous;
few are listed below:
Farmers’ Congress, exposure visits, district & provincial meetings, Review &
Planning Workshops (RPW) at national & regional levels, development and
dissemination of Education and Communication (IEC) material including but not
limited to: Newsletters, Brochures, Banners, case studies (including women
farmers’ success stories), leaflets, flyers, journal publications, international
conference papers, radio programs, pocket guides, press release and university
student Theses. Dedicated Project website continuously up-dated information.
National Review & Planning Meeting,
Vietnam (18 Nov 2016)

4. Project Organization

5. Project Achievement –few selected outputs
 66% increase in crop yield (compared to baseline)
 70% increase in farmers’ net profitability
 66% increase in labor use efficiency
 59% increase in water productivity
 Three-fold enhancement of
fertilizer use efficiency (regional)
 37% reduction in energy input
for farming. Reduction in
greenhouse gas emission from
rainfed & irrigated area by 16% and 13%, respectively
 National and international recognition (clearly evident)
National Workshop and Farmer
Congress, Uttaradit, Thailand (29-
30 March 2018)

6. Adoption and adaptation
Source: MEL study-SRI-LMB Project

7. Selected Recommendations from Policy studies
Articulate different domains and activities of each
ministry and department
Climate change action strategy into practical plans
Policies on farmers‘ cooperatives for multiple functions:
financing, extension, access to market
Support farmer participation in profitable organic
market: extension, value chain coordination and market
generation/promotion, organic certification
Policy incentives for private sector to participate as
service provider {suggest partnerships with FOs}
Promote access to credit by smallholders. Support for
productive use of credit

8. Conclusion based on results analysis
 Project’s contribution to climate-smart agriculture,
through enhancement of agriculture productivity in an
environmentally-sound and
cost-effective way, was
evident from analysis of results
 Project demonstrated increased
rice farm productivity under
different climatic conditions
through SRI + conservation farming
 A “sense of ownership of the project” developed among
stakeholders at multiple strata — from the local community
to national and regional levels including senior policymakers.
FPAR 2017 Ha Tinh, Vietnam

9. Rationale for follow-up Project
 ASEAN Food Security’s Action Plan 2015-2020 has
identified “SRI and conservation agriculture as climate-
smart integrated practices to be
implemented in ASEAN member
States to address the future risk
associated with climate change”
 Therefore, SRI-LMB was a timely
intervention. It has paved the
way for more intensive and
wider application of “SRI-centered climate-smart and
profitable agriculture”.
 Hence Phase 2 is proposed
SRI-LMB FPAR women groups in Bac
Giang province, Vietnam, SRI-LMB
Newsletter; Volume 5, Issue 2: 2017

10. The Way Forward….
 A cost-effective and climate-smart scaling up of SRI- SCI
can be achieved using the successful platform built by the
SRI-LMB project. A follow-up project is proposed for scaling-
up of SRI-SCI targeting multiple benefits, especially focusing
on profits to small farmers through:
Strengthening Farmers’
Organizations (FOs), not only for
small farmers to capture economies
of scale and commercialize farming
to become active partners of market
economy, but also to adopt a integrated water shed-based
holistic approach towards Climate-smart agriculture
FPAR 2017 Ha Tinh, Vietnam

11. The major strategies proposed for Phase 2
 Collective Action by Farmers’ Organizations (FOs) and FO-
Network to benefit all activities
 Expanding to other crops- SCI
 Continued focus on climate-
smart agriculture, with a
watershed-based approach
 Participatory Action Research
on Local Adaptation (of SRI, SCI)
 Special focus on women & youth
 Capacity building of stakeholders at different levels,
especially government agencies, universities
 Continued support to policy research, dialogue and
advocacy: special focus on women and youth
Strategy to maintain momentum until Phase 2 is launched
Regional Review & Planning Workshop,
Siem Reap, Cambodia (2-3 June 2015)

12. Extending to other crops - SCI
 Extend to other crops utilizing principles of System of
Crop Intensification, SCI
 Planned diversification, development / adaptation
and adoption of agroecological
farming methods
 Development of low-cost,
location-specific and
demand-driven technologies:
Already started in Phase 1 but
broader opportunities exist for
Phase 2: e.g. mechanization, post-harvest management
including value addition.
Processing of rice by a woman
farmer from X village, Nakai
district Khammouan province, Lao

13. Watershed-based approach for SRI-SCI scaling-up and
Climate-smart Agriculture
 Various parts of the watershed are physically and
operationally linked, the adverse environmental (and
health impacts) are the result of cumulative effects of
farming practices that are
mostly non-point source
pollutions
 Environment-friendly crop
management practices by
some farmers (say, due to
exposure to project) would
be less effective due to eco-unfriendly practices by others
 Watershed-network of FOs would Collectively address issues
AIT visit for monitoring landless
household training-Cambodia (Sep. 2017)

14. Further research on local adaptation of SRI and SCI
What practices were chosen by farmers? (continuation
of Phase 1 research on local adaptation)
What are the main reasons for choosing each practice or
a cluster of practices?
Have they modified practice(s)?
Is there a (statistically
significant) location-specific
pattern and reasons for choosing
“package(s) of practices” or
“modifications” ? Therefore,
Research involving multiple disciplines (e.g. soil physics,
plant’s bio-chemical reactions, socioeconomic)
FPAR in Yommalath district,
Khammaouan, Lao PDR (18 Aug 2015)

15. Active participation of women and youth: Manage the
“ways” of transforming small-farm agriculture
Intensifying and diversify market-driven activities “creating”
more opportunities for women,
including in input-output services
and value-chains {through FO-
managed Collective Action –
discussed later}, with
 Policy support: e.g. performance-
based incentives to FOs, including FCs and FCo-ops (credit,
infrastructure like storage /processing also to attract youth
and reverse migration);
Policy and special programs to help close the gender gap in
agriculture and rural employment
Farmer's Participatory
Action Research 2016, Cambodia

16. Capacity building of stakeholders
 In addition to capacity building of farmers, Phase 2 of the
project would include special mechanisms for building the
capacities of other stakeholders
like government agencies
including Ministries,
departments & Universities
 Would include short, medium
and long-term training, support
to “exchange-programs”,
national and international
conferences / workshops, study tours, etc.
Regional Review & Planning Workshop,
Siem Reap, Cambodia (2-3 June 2015)

17. Key strategy: promote farmers’ CA for SRI scaling-up
More rapid scaling-up of SRI is important because it has the
potential for contributing significantly to poverty reduction in
SEA and world-wide
Farmers’ collective action (CA) would be made a key strategy
for accelerating the scaling-up of SRI
Capturing economies of scale through novel institutional
arrangements like multi-functional FOs (Farmers’ Companies and
Farmer Cooperatives) would be pivotal for commercialization of
small-farmer agriculture. FOs would develop over time as self-
sustained business entities
This strategy would develop mutually-beneficial partnerships
with the private sector to facilitate farmers’ engaging more
fully/fairly in market economy
17

18. Farmers’ CA for SRI Scaling-Up (continued)
 CA in production planning, input-output services, including
post-harvest management / value-addition
An integrated approach to accelerate adoption of SRI,
SCI aimed at Climate-smart agriculture
This strategy would develop mutually-beneficial
partnerships with the private sector to facilitate farmers’
engaging more fully/fairly in market economy
The following slides are adopted from RPW-2017
(Keynote presentation Wijay with Norman)
18

19. 19
Beyond On-Farm Activity: Economic Strength
CA managed by a strong network of FOs (Farmers’ Companies +
Farmers’ Cooperatives) would enable small farmers to move
beyond on-farm activity, e.g., achieve profits through post-
harvest management incl. value-addition.
• CA would address the crucial
issue: once farmers are
successful on the agronomic
side, how can they be similarly
successful on the economic side?
• Further, how can farmers’ avoid
their agronomic success leading
to economic setbacks? Answers
to these questions are crucial for food security.
CFPAR in Yommalath district, Khammouan
province, Lao PDR (18 Aug 2015)

20. Conclusion 1
Collective Action is proposed for future SRI-SCI scaling-up
strategy mainly because crop yield and profit of (small)
farmers who adopt SRI depend on a variety of
complementary factors like:
a) adoption of other technologies, post-harvest as well as
production technologies;
b) timely availability of key inputs; and
c) prices of inputs and outputs, access to markets, etc.
Farmers’ CA is capable of dealing with most of these
factors. If these other factors are well-managed, overall
productivity and profit will be greater, and farmers can
capture the full benefits of SRI-SCI. This should help to
accelerate rate of SRI-SCI adoption. 20

21. Conclusion 2
SRI has demonstrated that it is higher-yielding, water-
saving, time-saving and climate-smart. With such
advantages, SRI can lead the way to poverty reduction,
especially because the majority are resource-poor, small
farmers vulnerable to climate change. They are the major
suppliers of staple food in Asia.
If farmers’ CA is supportive of SRI utilization, it can benefit
urban residents also, and especially the urban poor who
spend a larger portion of their meagre incomes on rice.
This should become less expensive with higher efficiency
and productivity in rice-growing.
21

22. Conclusion 3
Most small farmers grow also non-rice crops and could
benefit from SCI. But many non-rice crops are more
perishable and CA can make them more remunerative.
Collective action by FOs -- including Farmer Companies
and Farmer Co-operatives -- does double duty for
improving the utilization of SCI as well as SRI.
Therefore, SRI initiatives should attempt to catalyze
and facilitate the development of a strong, vertically
and horizontally integrated network of FOs to manage
collective action for enhancing agronomic efficiency,
farmer incomes, and agroecological sustainability.
22

23. Multi-functional FO/Farmers’ Company / Farmers’ Co-operative
OPEN MARKET (Others)
GoodDistributionofIncome
Base Organization
(Farmers’
Organization
/ Co-op)
Value Addition Private Companies
Other service Providers
Ø Government Agencies
Ø Private Sector
Project
§ FINANCE (e.g. Revolving Funds”);
MANAGEMENT INPUTS
§ FACILITATION (Catalyzing /
Mentoring & Tech. inputs)
Higher-level Multi-
Functional Farmers’
Organization (incl.
/ Co-op; Farmer
Company
Form
FC/ Multi-
functional W
UA
Plan and
organize
Production
Provide services: Inputs
Information, Transport,
Collection etc (Sell)
Watershed Management
(water harvesting and other)
Purchase produce through
Forward contracts
Value addition
Sell /buy
Products and
Services
through
contractual
agreements

24. CA in expansion of SRI,
SCI. intensifying
conservation farming
SRI-LMB Project- The “Way forward” towards Climate-smart Agriculture
- Components for consideration -
CA in appropriate
mechanization / attracting
youth
CA in water harvesting:
enhance and extend water
availability:
In-depth participatory
research on Local
Adaptation of SRI, SCI
CA in input supply, FO-led
Extension, post-harvest mgt.,
incl. marketing, value-chain
Collective
Action by
Farmers’
Organizations (FOs)
including Farmers’
Companies and
Cooperatives
FO-Network:
Horizontal & Vertical
links: FO-FO; FO-
Government
Agencies; FO -Private
Sector
Capacity building of
Government agencies,
Universities on SRI, SCI and
Conservation/ Green growth
Policy research and
advocacy including legal
support to FOs
Widening Scope: Watershed-
base; extend to other crops
(SCI), intensive action on
climate-smart agric.

25. 19-11-2018 25