System of Rice Intensification (SRI) -

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System of Rice Intensification (SRI) - Less can
Produce more
Dr. A. SATYANARAYANA Director of Extension
Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural
University Rajendranagar, Hyderabad
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Modern Agriculture

• Overly Genocentric
• Productivity gains were possible with increased
  
• use of inputs Fertilizers, Pesticides,
  Water etc.
• They are now giving
• Diminishing returns
• Creating environmental hazards, health risks
• Rising costs of production

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21st Century Agriculture needs to be

• More productive in terms of
• - Land, Labour, Water, Capital, Energy,
  inputs
• More environmentally benign
• More robust in the face of climate change
• More socially beneficial
• - reducing poverty, greater food security

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Biological power and Eco-agriculture should be
basic foundations for soil health

• Micro organisms and other soil biota as
• creators and maintainers of soil fertility
• Greater attention to plants roots

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The basic idea of SRI
Rice plants do best when their - roots
can grow large because the plants are
transplanted carefully at wider
spacing and grown on soil that is
kept well aerated with abundant and
diverse soil microorganisms
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The contribution of soil microbial activity need
to be taken more seriously
The microbial flora causes a large number of
biochemical changes in the soil that largely
determine the fertility of soil (De Datta, 1981)
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System of Rice Intensification (SRI) a way out
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• SRI offers increased factor productivity of
• Land
• Labour
• Water

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• Rice is the most important food crop of India
• Rice has been identified as Growth Engine under
  vision 2020 of Andhra Pradesh
• The area and production of rice is coming down in
  recent years due to lack of sufficient water in
  irrigation systems
• SRI has the potential to meet the challenge by
  virtue of its capacity to double or even triple
  the productivity and less water requirement

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• SRI was first developed in Madaskar during
  1980s
• Not known outside Madagaskar until 1997
• Its potential is under testing in China,
  Indonesia, Combodia, Thailand, Bangladesh,
  Sri Lanka, India
• In A.P, SRI is experimented all the 22
  districts with encouraging results

• Over 1,00,000 farmers are experimenting with this
  system world wide at present
• Few thousands of acres are under SRI in the
  very second season in AP

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• SRI Technology uses
• Less external inputs
• Less seed (2 kg/ac)
• Fewer plants per unit area (25 x 25 cm)
• Less chemical fertilizer
• More organic manures
• Less pesticides

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• SRI is initially labour intensive
• Needs 50 more man days for transplanting and
  weeding
• Mobilises labour to work for profit
• It offers an alternative to resource poor, who
  puts in their family labour
• Once skills are learnt and implements are used,
  the labour costs will be lesser than the present
  day Rice cultivation

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• SRI encourages rice plant to grow healthy with
• Large root volume
• Profuse and strong tillers
• Non-lodging
• Big panicle
• More and well filled spikelets and higher grain
  weight
• Resists insects
• Because it allows Rice to grow
  naturally

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Root growth

• Root growth can be massive in response to SRI
  practices
• 3 hills under conventional method required 28 kg
  of force to be pulled up
• Single SRI rice plants required 53 kg for
  uprooting

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Tillering is greatly increased

• 30 tillers per plant are fairly easy to achieve
• 50 tillers per plant are quite attainable
• With really good use of SRI, individual plants
  can have 100 fertile tillers or even more
• Because no set back due to early
  transplanting and no die back of roots
• Maximum tillering occurs concurrently with
  panicle initiation
• With SRI positive correlation is found between
  the number of panicles per plant and number of
  grains per panicle

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Rice plant

• Everybody believe that Rice is an aquatic plant
  and grows best in standing water
• Rice is not an aquatic plant, it can survive in
  water but does not thrive under hypoxic
  conditions
• Rice plants spends lot of its energy to
  develop air pockets (aerenchyma tissue) in its
  roots under continuous inundation
• 70 of Rice root tips get degenerated by
  flowering period
• Under SRI paddy fields are not flooded but keep
  the soil moist during vegetative phase
• SRI requires only about half as much water as
  normally applied in irrigated rice

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Conventional system with more water
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Intermittent wetting and drying and Aeration
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SIX MECHANISMS AND PROCESSES FOR SRI

• EARLY TRANSPLANTING
• seedlings 8-12 days old,
• when plant has only
• two small leaves,before
• fourth phyllochron
• 2. CAREFUL TRANSPLANTING
• Minimize trauma in transplanting
• Remove plant from nursery with the
• seed, soil and roots carefully and
• place it in the field without plunging
• too deep into soil

• More tillering potential
• More root growth potential
• More tillering potential

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After 12 days in nursery the plant height is 7.7
inches (18.8cm) Length of main root is 5
inches (12.7 cm) 4 leaves 8 small roots
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Diagram of possible stalks of a rice shoot stalks
grow following a regular cycle (phyllochron)
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Contd..

• WIDE SPACING
• plant single seedlings,
• not in clumps, and in
• a square pattern, not rows,
• 25cm x 25cm or wider
• 4. WEEDING AND AERATION
• needed because no standing water use
  simple mechanical rotating hoe that churns up
  soil 2 weedings required, with 4 recommended
  before panicle initiation first weeding 10 days
  after transplanting

• More root growth potential
• More root growth, due to reduced weed
  competition, and aeration of soil, giving roots
  more oxygen and N due to increased microbial
  activity we left in soil can add 1tons per
  weeding? Each additional weeding after two rounds
  results in increased productivity up to 2
  t/ha/weeding

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Contd..

• WATER MANAGEMENT
• regular water applications to
• keep soil moist but not saturated,
• with intermittent dryings,alternating
• aerobic and anaerobic soil conditions
• COMPOST/FYM
• applied instead of or in addition to
• chemical fertilizer 10 tons/ha
  

• More root growth because avoids root degeneration
  able to acquire more and more varied nutrients
  from the soil
• More plant growth because of better soil health
  and structure, and more balanced nutrient supply

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Green Manure crop (Sunhemp)
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Crop residues
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Crop residues
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Nursery Management

• Seed rate 2 kg/ac
• Nursery area 1 cent/ac
• Select healthy seed
• Pre-sprouted seeds are sown on raised nursery
  bed
• Prepare nursery bed like garden crops
• Apply a layer of fine manure
• Spread sprouted seed sparcely
• Cover with another layer of manure
• Mulch with paddy straw
• Water carefully
• Banana leaf sheath may be used for easy lifting
  and transport of seedlings

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Main field preparation

• Land preparation is not different from regular
  irrigated rice cultivation
• Levelling should be done carefully so that water
  can be applied very evenly
• At every 3 m distance form a canal to facilitate
  drainage
• With the help of a marker draw lines both way at
  25 x 25 cm apart and transplant at the
  intersection

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PADDY YIELDS UNDER SRI IN COASTAL AREA

YIELD( Kg/ha)

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PADDY YIELDS UNDER SRI IN TELANGANA AREA

YIELD( Kg/ha)
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PADDY YIELDS UNDER SRI IN RAYALASEEMA

YIELD( Kg/ha)
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PADDY YIELDS UNDER SRI REPORTED BY DOA

YIELD( Kg/ha)
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Performance of SRI in AP- Kharif 2003
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Performance of SRI in AP- Kharif 2003 (Trials
organized by State DOA)
No. of trials - 69 Average SRI yield
(t/ha) - 8.36 Control (t/ha) - 4.89 State
average productivity (t/ha) - 3.87 5 districts
averaged over 10 t/ha
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Report on SRI Cultivation Name of the Farmer
Mr.A.Jayasurya Reddy Address Tarimala
Village, Singanamala Mandal
Anantapur district, Andhra
Pradesh Season Rainy season 2003 Area under
SRI 0.2 ha Variety BPT 5204

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Report on SRI Cultivation Name of the Farmer
Mr.K.Venka Subba Reddy Address Konidedu
Village, Panyam Mandal
Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh Season
Rainy season 2003 Area under SRI 840
m2 Variety BPT 5204

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Report on SRI Cultivation Name of the Farmer
Mr.Rakesh Address EdulapalliVillage, Kotturu
Mandal Mahabubnagar
district, Andhra Pradesh Variety BPT
5204 Area under SRI 0.8 ha

() Only organic manures were applied
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Report on SRI Cultivation National Seed Project,
ANGRAU, Hyderabad Variety BPT 5204 Area
under SRI 0.2 ha

SRI crop matured 10 days earlier
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Report on SRI Cultivation Name of the Farmer
Mr.T.Sambi Reddy Address Bhadirajupalem
Village,
ThotlavallurMandal
Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh Area
under SRI 0.2 ha Variety BPT 5204

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SRI is counter - Intuitive
Less can produce more Younger seedlings becomes
larger and more productive Fewer plants/hill and
per m2 give more yield Less water can give
greater yield
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SRI utilizes Biological Power

• Rice root system grown under SRI i.e., aerated
  soil do not degenerate, are much larger and
  function better
• Soils that are aerated and well supplied with
  organic matter can support longer and diverse
  populations of soil micro organisms, which inturn
  mobilizes nutrients to the plant
• Phytohormones produced by bacteria and fungi
  living in soils and roots promote root growth and
  the health of the plants
• Root exudates provide food to microorganisms
• Application of fertilizers and other agro
  chemicals has inhibiting effect on soil biota

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Benefits of SRI
1. Higher yields Both grain and straw 2.
Reduced duration (by 10 days) 3. Lesser chemical
inputs 4. Less water requirement 5. Less chaffy
grain 6. Grain weight increased without change
in grain size 7. Higher head rice recovery 8.
Withstood cyclonic gales 9. Cold tolerance 10.
Soil health improves through biological activity
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• Future needs
• Research to produce different models for
  different situations
• To promote SRI by way of making information
  available
• To organise a few demonstrations with farmers
  participation

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Swarna under SRI
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THANK YOU