System of rice intensification status, issues and future research strategies

1. System of Rice Intensification-
Status, Issues and Future
Research Strategies
K.Srinivasa Rao
Ex. Head, Div. of Crop Production
Central Rice Research Institute
Cuttack-753 006, Orissa, India
______________________________
E- mail: ksrao_52@hotmail.com

2. Rice is grown in all the countries of the world, except Antarctica.
It has large influence on nutrition and food security all over the world.
It is the staple food for over half of the world’s population.
About 4/5th of the world’s rice is produced by the small scale farmers and is
consumed locally.
Rice systems support a wide variety of plants and animals, which also help to
supplement rural diet and incomes.
Rice is therefore on the frontline in the fight against world hunger and poverty.
Rice is also a symbol of both cultural identity and global unity.
“Rice is Life”

3. RICE
2011-12 2020-21 2025
Projected
demand (m/ton)
105 122 130
Required
growth
rate(%/year)
2.06 1.71 1.60
Demand projection of rice for the years 2011,2020 and
2025
in India

4.  Declining resource base
Land
Water
Labour
 Deteriorating soil health
 Increasing environmental concerns
 Increased pest and disease problems
 Increasing cost of cultivation
 Increasing food demands
 Procurement & Marketing issues
 Unprecedented disasters like cyclone, flood, etc.
 Poor extension services and socio-economic barrier
Issues & Challenges for enhancing rice
production

5. Low Land
and Water
Productivity
Degrading
Land Resource Base
Depleting Aquifers
Dwindling Land
for Agriculture
High Water
Losses
Shrinking Water
Resources
Increasing
Population
Pressure
Food Security
MAJOR CHALLENGES

6. Rice and Water
 80% of fresh water is used for agriculture.
 More than 50% of this is consumed by the rice
crop.
 Rice consumes about 4000-5000 ltr. of water to
produce 1 kg of grain.
 Irrigated Rice cannot be ignored as it contributes
significantly to food security.
 Little scope to save water from other irrigated dry
crops.
 Hence pressure would be on rice cultivation to cut
down the water requirement.

7. Water saving strategies and
options in rice cultivation
Genetic
 Designing water use efficient varieties and
hybrids.
Management
o Zero tillage
o Raised bed method
o Direct seeding
o System of Rice Intensification (SRI)
o Aerobic rice
o Alternate wetting and drying

8. System of Rice Intensification (SRI)
- a new management technique for
increasing the productivity of irrigated rice

9. What is SRI ?
It is a set of modified practices for growing
rice which was developed in Madagascar in
1983 by Father Henri Laulanie.
Features
Planting young seedlings 8 – 12 days old
Planting single seedling/hill Along with soil
Wider Spacing 25 cm x 25 cm
Organic manuring Compost , Gm , Straw
No standing water till PI stage Alternate wetting and drying
Aerated Soil Weeding by Cono-weeder

10. SRI increase rice yields significantly through effective
integration of soil, water, nutrient and plant management,
without dependence on high cost modern inputs.
SRI practices are helpful in improving the soil quality and
soil biodiversity and protect the environment
sustainability.
SRI increases the profitability of rice farmers, especially
those, who are resource-poor by saving inputs
SRI technology uses less seed, water, chemical fertilizers
and pesticides but yields more with large root volume,
profuse and strong tillers with big panicles, more and
well-filled spike lets with high grain weight
Why SRI

11. Claims of SRI method
 Very high yields (up to 15 – 17 t/ha).
 Water saving (up to 50%)
 Improved soil health.
 Improved input use efficiency.
 Lower seed requirement.

12. Irrigated environments- Irrigated Medium Lands
in wet season and dry seasons.
Rainfed environments- shallow lowlands where
water control (irrigation & Drainage) is possible
Irrigated boro rice areas in West Bengal, Bihar,
Orissa, Assam & other NEH states
Favourable bunded uplands during wet season
Production Environments

13. NURSEY
PLANTING
MARKER
Components of SRI cultivation
LAND PREPARAION

14. Mechanized Weeder
Cono Weeder Mandava weeder
WEED MANGEMENT
WATER MANAGEMENT NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT

15. Healthy Root Growth
More Tillers Heavy Panicles More Yield

16. Item Conventional Method SRI method
Seed 50-60 kg/ha 5 kg/ha
Transplanting Seedlings about 30
days old
Seedlings about 8-12 day’s
old
Number of hills/m2 About 30-40 hills About 16 hills
No. of seedlings/hill Three or more Only one
Fertilization Chemical fertilizers,
pesticides, herbicides
and insecticides
Preference given to
organic fertilization, non
chemical means of weed
control. Pesticides,
insecticides usually not
necessary
Water Management Continuous flooding Only moist condition
Weed management Manually/chemically
controlled
Turn down into the field by
a weeder
SRI vs. Conventional Method of Rice Cultivation

17. Evaluation of SRI with recommended
package of practices - CRRI, Cuttack

18. Experimental Site
Site: Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack,
India (20.5 N, 86oE and 23.5 m above mean sea
level)
Ecosystem: Irrigated medium land
Season: Wet (June-October) and dry (January to
May)
Soil: The soil of the experimental site is of Sandy
loam of Mahanadi delta classified as alluvial
(Inceptisol-aeric tropaquept)

19. Soil Property
Texture
Sand (%) 63
Silt (%) 14
Clay (%) 23
PH 6.5
Total N (%) 0.06
Available P (ppm) 36
Exchangeable K (meq/100g) 1.0
Exchangeable Mg (meq/100g) 4.7
Exchangeable Ca (meq/100g) 8.0
Organic carbon (%) 0.5
Percolation rate (mm/day) 8
Important properties of the soil of the experimental s

20. Weekly Distribution Pattern of Rainfall at Cuttack(Based
on 60 Years Average Data from 1941 - 2000)
0
20
40
60
80
100
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52
Standard Meteorological Week
Rainfall(mm)
Monsoon Period = 23rd – 40th SMW, Avg. Annual Rainfall= 1536 mm
Dry spells of 5-15 days are common any time during the wet season.
Experienced drought thrice within last seven years (1996, 2000 and 2002)

21. The SRI and ICM gave significantly higher grain yield than
LRP.
The mean grain yield under SRI (5.92 t/ha in 2005 and 6.99
t/ha in 2006) was higher by 21 and 24 percent over LRP
(4.90 t/ha in 2005 and 5.64 t/ha in 2006).
SRI gave about 7.5 and 14.8 per cent increase in grain yield
over ICM in 2005 and 2006 respectively.
Higher yield in SRI was realized due to more effective tillers
hill-1, longer panicles with more fertile spikelets panicle-1.
RESULTS

22. Varieties Grain yield kg/ha
SRI ICM LRM Mean
Lalat 5.84 5.45 4.71 5.38
CRHR-5 6.00 5.56 5.10 5.56
5.92(20.8) 5.51(12.4) 4.94
Grain Yield as affected by different crop establishment
methods (Dry season)
C.D. (0.05) for methods of establishment 0.29 (6.26)
for Varieties NS (5.04)
for M at same V NS
for V at same M NS

23. Varieties Grain yield kg/ha
SRI ICM LRM Mean
Lalat 7.21 6.23 5.63 6.35
CRHR-5 6.76 5.94 5.66 6.12
6.99 (23.9) 6.09 (7.90) 5.64
Grain Yield as affected by different crop establishment
methods (Dry season)
C.D. (0.05) for methods of establishment 0.35 (5.20)
for Varieties NS
for M at same V NS
for V at same M NS

24. SRI ICM LRM MEAN
% DH at 33 DAT
Lalat 6.14 20.67 18.11 14.97
CRHR-5 7.24 14.2 18.45 13.30
Average 6.69 17.44 18.28
% DH at 50 DAT
Lalat 0.85 5.85 5.25 3.98
CRHR-5 1.05 5.95 5.65 4.23
Average 0.95 5.90 5.45
% WEH at harvest
Lalat 0.5 2.1 3.05 1.88
CRHR-5 1.1 2.7 3.05 2.28
Average 0.8 2.4 3.05
Insect incidence as affected by different crop
establishment methods (Dry season)

25. Impact of SRI on rice yields:
SRI significantly increased rice yield. There is about 19 percent increase in yield
over local recommended practice (LRP) and about 8 percent increase over
Integrated Crop Management (ICM)
S
R
SRI vs LRP SRI vs ICM

26. Treatments Plant
Height (cm)
Panicles/m2 Panicle
wt. (g)
Grain
yield (t/ha)
Age of seedlings (days)
8 117 301 3.75 6.22
14 109 285 3.38 5.92
21 108 272 2.96 5.47
CV (%) 4.6 8.0 6.1 16.0
CD (0.05) NS 15.3 0.21 0.08
Crop density
15 cm x 15 cm (44)
hills/m2)
109.2 316.6 2.38 5.82
25 cm x 25 cm (16)
hills/m2)
114.1 283.3 4.06 6.21
30 cm x 30 cm (11)
hills/m2)
111.6 259.0 3.66 4.82
CV (%) 2.3 8.7 4.5 12.6
CD (0.05) NS 21.2 0.20 0.10
CD (Main x sub plot) NS 26.6 0.37 NS
Standardization of technology package for SRI- CRRI, Cuttack

27. Yield and water use efficiency were significantly affected by
different water regimes.
Highest yield and Water Use Efficiency were obtained when
irrigation was provided at saturation and the lowest was obtained
when irrigation was given at 10 days interval
Total and effective tillers per hill and panicle weight were more in
SRI.
Despite of more tillers per hill in SRI, the total tillers as well as
effective panicles on per unit area basis were not compensated
by the wider geometry as compared to traditional method.
Thus, on an average the grain was more under traditional method
as compared to SRI
Studies on Water Management

28. Water
Management
Practice
Yield (t/ha) No. of tillers /m2
(70 DAT)
Plant height,
cm (60 DAT)
SRI Trad SRI Trad SRI Trad
SW 5+2 cm 6.09
(8.96)
6.81
(10.01)
460 446 85.7 86.4
At hair line
Crack
5.43
(7.09)
6.87
(10.10)
459 442 83.0 88.8
Soil
Saturation
5.72
(8.41)
7.39
(10.87)
518.0 394.0 83.87 86.17
Irrigation 10 d
interval
3.81
(5.60)
4.72
(6.94)
348.00 272 79.0 81.9
Water Use Efficiency as affected by different Water Management
Practices
Figures in parenthesis indicates WUE in kg/ha-mm

29. Apply NPK @ 60:30:30 kg/ha (wet season) & 80:40:40 kg/ha (dry
season). Soil test based fertilizer application especially for P & K is
preferred.
Apply 1/2 of total N, entire amount of P & ¾ of K as basal after final land
preparation & draining out the standing water. Top dress the remaining
N in 2 equal splits each at 3 weeks after transplanting and at PI. Also
apply remaining 1/4 of K at PI.
For better soil health apply N in the form of both organics (GM, FYM,
Azolla etc.) & inorganic (urea) in 50:50 proportion.
Apply ZnSO4 @ 25 kg/ha in Zinc deficient soils.
In highly fertile soils, application of FYM or compost alone @ 10t/ha is
sufficient as source of nutrients. Apply diverse organic manures.
Organic manures act as food for microorganisms.
Fertilizer Management

30. Carbon dioxide fluxes from rice field in SRI and flooded
condition in morning and afternoon (at CRRI).
The CO2 flux per kg of rice production is less in SRI compared to flooded rice

32. Treatment Grain yield
t/ha
Straw yield
t/ha
Panicle
no./m2
Panicle
Weight (gms.)
SRP 5.81 4.08 244 1.95
SRI 6.82 5.52 295 2.15
DWS+SRI 7.14 6.80 460 1.65
Treatments:
M1- SRI
M2- State Recommended Practice (SRP)
M3- Direct Wet Seeding (DWS) + SRI Management
Fertilizer Dose: 80:40:40 kg NPK/ha Variety: Naveen
(Dry Season)
DEMONSTRATION CUM OBSERVATION TRIAL SRI

33. SRI under direct seeded

34. Method Value of
output/
acre
Value of
Straw
Seed
cost
Labour Fertiliz
ers
Net
return
SRI 8526 1025 35 2076 389 7052
Conventional 6467 681 326 2260 339 4222
Net returns under SRI and conventional paddy cultivation

35. SRI Conventional
Seedbed preparation 6.58 7.84
Seed Treatment 0.52 0.95
Seed Sowing 0.35 0.59
Fertilizer/manure (Seedbed) 0.80 1.08
Ploughing 33.45 34.30
Land leveling 7.03 6.42
Field bund dressing/Drainage Channel 4.13 2.63
Application of fertilizer as basal 0.75 0.68
Application of manure 2.49 2.57
Transplanting 148 175
Hoeing & Weeding 57.12 49.90
Successive application of Fertilizer 0.80 0.83
Harvesting 63.15 71.88
Threshing 44.40 46.83
369.12 401.75
Labour requirement/acre (in hours)

36. The CRRI transferred the results of SRI research to
extension agencies and farmers through training and on
farm field demonstrations.
The officials of the various state dept. of agriculture and
farmers visited experimental plots and gained the
experience of SRI cultivation.
Trained the farmers of Bandakutra, Junagarh in cultivation
techniques of SRI in collaboration with Syngenta
Foundation together with KARRTABYA (NGO). About 100
farmers from the surrounding villages attended the
workshop and got benefited.
Our scientists including myself participated in various
training programmes organized on SRI by State Department
of Agriculture, ATMA, PPL, NGO’s etc as resource persons
Technology Transfer and Dissemination

37. SRI- a climate resilient rice production system (Hindalapalli, Ganjam )

38. Parameters Rabi season 2011-12 (Variety: Satabdi)
SRI *ICM Practice Traditional practice
Productivity (t/ ha) 5.30 5.01 -
Gross Income(Rs.) 64,390/- 60,968/- -
Net Income (Rs.) 37,660/- 36,530/- -
Returns per rupee
invested
2.41 2.49 -
On farm Research results in farmer’s fields
of Ganjam District (Odisha)
* ICM module- HYV (Satabdi – 120 days duration), Line transplanting, INM (FYM, 5t/ha +NPK 80:40:40
kg/ha), manual weeding and Need based plant protection

39. Conclusions
♦ Performance of SRI is location specific
♦ Varieties respond differentially to this method.
♦ It is a water and seed saving method.
♦ Can be a best option to promote hybrid rice as hybrids
perform better under SRI and it helps to save significantly
in seed cost.
♦ Has potential to improve soil health and environmental
protection.
♦ Further research is needed to understand the factors
contributing to higher yield, soil health parameters, and
various aspects of sustainability.
♦ This technology could be well adopted in the coastal
districts of Orissa during dry season. However, in western
parts of the state it can be practiced both in wet and dry
seasons.

40. Major Constraints Experienced at operational level
Initial resistance to go for planting young seedlings
Difficulties in weeding and non availability suitable weeders
Non availability of enough quantity of organic manures
Lack of proper control of water especially under canal irrigation
and under bore wells (due to electricity problems)
Poor drainage in heavy rainfall areas
Non availability of trained Agricultural labour for planting and
weeding

41. To realize the potential of SRI will require
sustained interdisciplinary team efforts, ranging
from strategic on-station research to participatory
on-farm studies. This will have to deal with three
broad, inter-related aspects of research:.
1. Interactions between genotypes and biophysical
environments (G_E);
2. Interactions between biophysical environments and
cultural practices; and
3. Adaptation of SRI and its components to the needs
and opportunities of diverse rice production systems,
including adjustments for socio-economic acceptability
and suitability
FUTURE RESEARCH STRATEGIES

42. Future Thrust Areas for Research on SRI
■ Varietal response to SRI and designing suitable plant type.
■ Identification of areas/zones most suited for SRI method.
■ Precise quantification of savings in water.
■ Effective weed management and refinement of machinery.
■ Detailed studies on soil health and microbial activity.
■ SRI vis-à-vis pest and disease incidence and their management.
■ Detailed economics of SRI and Cost : Benefit analysis.
■ Farmer participatory trials to fine tune the technology in terms of
its economic viability and sustainability
■ Development of machinery for weeding & Planting
■ Studies on mitigating the effects of climate change if any with SRI
adoption.

43. Evaluation of SRI with recommended package of practices
Standardization of technology package for SRI in different rice
growing regions and ecologies (varieties including hybrids,
spacing of hills, number of seedlings per hill, age of seedlings,
weeding practices, irrigation pattern, pest and disease
management etc.)
Fine-tuning the SRI technology in terms of economics and
sustainability through Farmer participatory on farm trials
Generation of scientific reasons of higher productivity realized
with SRI in terms of greater root growth, water saving potential,
degeneration of roots in flooded conditions, nutrient
transformation, microbial biomass etc.
Mechanization aspects of SRI- Development of Mechanical Weeder
Research in Progress

44. Do’s
Use quality seeds of relevant variety/hybrid for healthy seedlings
Favourable uplands and areas with assured irrigation should be used for SRI
Planning for SRI areas needs to be done at district level
Young seedlings with intact soil roots to be shallow transplanted
Use as much organic manures as possible
Use cono-weeder for controlling weeds & creating aeration
Care should be taken to control leaf folder & Nematodes
Avoid flooding & adopt AWD to keep the soil at saturation
Don’ts
Not to be promoted where the fields are not leveled
Not to be promoted in saline soils, lowlands & high rainfall areas
Do’s and Don’ts for SRI:

45. PHB-71in Summer 2006-07 Under SRI