Post on 17-Jan-2015
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Agroecological Crop Management
for Increased Productivity -- Experience with Rice and Other Crops
Norman Uphoff, SRI-RiceCornell University, USA
6th International Seminar on Agricultural Policies,
Santo Domingo, 24 January 2013Instituto Interamericano de Cooperation
para la Agricultura (IICA)
What is called ‘modern agriculture’ has been very successful over past 50
yearsThe question arises, however:
under the present and foreseeable conditions of the 21st century,
should we continue doing more of the same in the agricultural sector?
Even if we can do it better ?
Should be we considering other strategies? Shouldn’t we be
developing ‘post-modern agriculture’ to the extent that new ideas and methods are empirically
validated?
Changing conditions in the 21st century will make doing more of the
same less tenable• Arable land area per capita is reducing as
• Populations continue to grow• Land area is being lost to urban spread• Land degradation is increasing year by year, so• Land-extensive agriculture makes less sense
• Water supply for agriculture is declining:
• Competing demands for domestic use and industry• Climate change is reducing amount and reliability
• Pests and diseases are likely to increase
In US, crop losses to insects increased from 7% to 13% at the same time that farmers’ insecticide use increased by 14x
• Future energy prices will surely be higher than they were in the past century, raising:
• Production costs: fuel, fertilizer, agrochemicals
• Transport costs: long-distance trade more costly
• Climate change will become more adverse
• Its impact will be greatest in many LDCs
• Accessibility of technology remains big issue
• The Green Revolution by-passed most of the world’s poor & hungry; we must meet their needs
• Agricultural productivity gains have slowed
• Our technology is giving diminishing returns
Is there any alternative?Fortunately, there are other strategies that
deserve to be considered and evaluated
The current strategy achieved its epitome in the Green Revolution, successful in
much of Asiaand in various parts of Latin America
Core elements of the Green Revolution were:
• Developing ‘improved’ varieties (genotypes)
•Applying more agrochemical (synthetic) inputs to increase soil fertility and give
crop protection (‘improved’ variety = more responsive to inputs)
•Applying and consuming more irrigation WATER
•Energy-intensive & capital-intensive production
Agroecological alternativeRather than focus on changed/increased genetic potentials, one seeks more/better
EXPRESSION of genetic potentials by altering crop management
[We don’t eat GENOTYPES -- we eat PHENOTYPES]
The impact that plants’ growing environments have on their productivity
has long been recognized and is expressed in the equation: P = (∫)x G + E + [G x E]
•‘Modern agriculture’ has focused on G•Agroecological methods focus more on E
Can we achieve enough by modifying E > G ?
We need to use our land/soil and waterresources more productively and
sustainably
Can we achieve more productive PHENOTYPES from any genotype by
altering crops’ growing environments, both above and below ground
We should consider experience with the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) developed in Madagascar, now known in
Latin America as la Sistema Intensivo de Cultivo Arrocero (SICA)
Its ideas and practices are enabling farmers in >50 countries to get more productive rice plants from existing
varieties -- whether local, HYV or hybrids
SRI/SICA management offers advantages to farmers: Reductions in:•SEED requirements (plant populations greatly reduced)•IRRIGATION WATER (no more flooding of fields)•Need for AGROCHEMICAL INPUTS (fertilizer, sprays)•COSTS OF PRODUCTION (even possibly of LABOR)Increases in:•CROP YIELD (potentially very great increases)•NET FARMER INCOME (more output with less cost)•Resistance to many effects of CLIMATE CHANGE:
• Increased DROUGHT resistance• Resistance to STORM damage (less crop
lodging)• More resistance to PESTS AND DISEASES• Even some tolerance of extreme
temperatures •Need for BIOMASS, and possibly for more LABORThese methods can be adapted to many OTHER CROPS
Basic Concepts for SRI/SICA -- also for SCI:
• Establish healthy plants early (young) and carefully, making efforts to promote their root growth potential.
• Reduce plant density, giving each plant more room to grow, both above-ground and below-ground, to intercept more sunlight and to obtain more soil nutrients.
• Keep the soil well-aerated and enriched with organic matter, as much as possible, so that the soil can support better growth of roots and more abundant, diverse aerobic soil organisms.– Apply water sparingly in ways that can support the
growth of plant roots and of beneficial soil microbes, avoiding continuous inundation and anaerobic soil conditions.
– Control weeds in ways that actively aerate the soil.
These practices when used together enable farmers to: • Increase the size & functioning of ROOT SYSTEMS,
and• Enhance and diversify the populations of SOIL
BIOTA.
NEPAL: Farmer witha rice plantgrown from
a single seed using
SRI methods in Morang
district
CUBA: Farmer with two plants of same variety (VN 2084) and same age (52
DAS)
IRAQ: Comparison trials at Al-Mishkhab Rice Research Station, Najaf
SRI
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
IH H FH MR WR YRStage
Org
an d
ry w
eigh
t(g/
hill)
IH H FH MR WR YR
CK Yellow leafand sheath
Panicle
Leaf
Sheath
Stem
47.9% 34.7%
CHINA: Non-Flooding Rice Farming Technology in Irrigated Paddy Field,Dr. Tao Longxing, China National Rice Research Institute, 2004
These effects are seen in a wide
variety of agroecosystems:• Tropical environments• Mountainous regions• Arid/semi-arid regions
The scale of production ranges from:
• Smallholder farming systems, to• Large, mechanized operations
INDONESIACaritas introduced
SRI methods in Aceh in 2005 after
tsunami devastation – local yields went from
2 t/ha to 8.5 t/ha “Using less rice seed, less water and organic
compost, farmers in Aceh have quadrupled their crop
production.” ‘Rice Aplenty in Aceh,’ Caritas News (2009)
Similar quadrupling of rice yields by poor, food-insecure
households have been documented similarly in Madagascar, Cambodia, India (Madhya Pradesh)
AFGHANISTAN: Transplanting SRI field in Baghlan Province
@ 1600 m.a.s.l. in mountainous region with short growing season,
supported by program of the Aga Khan Foundation
AKF technician making a field visit in Baghlan province
* Some areas could not continue or be measured because of Taliban
SRI yields were achieved with reductions in water
Year
SRI Users
SRI Yield
Conv.
Yield
2008 6 10.1 5.4
2009 42 9.3 5.6
2nd yr
[7] [13.3] [5.6]
1st yr
[35] [8.7] [5.5]
2010 104 8.8 5.6
2011 114* 10.01 5.04
MALI -- SRI nursery in Timbuktu region on edge of Sahara Desert with 8-day seedlings
for transplanting
SRI transplanting in Timbuktu, Mali
Malian farmer in the Timbuktu region
showing the difference between
regular and SRI rice plants
with 32% less water
Gao region: 7.84 t/haMopti region: 7.85
t/ha
Year
SRI Users
SRI Yield
Conv. Yield
2007-08 1 8.98 --2008-09 60 9.01 5.492009-10 130 7.71 4.48
Year2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
20092010
Total
SRI area (ha)1,13
37,26
757,40
0117,2
67204,4
67252,4
67301,0
67941,0
68
SRI yield (kg/ha)9,10
59,43
58,805 9,075 9,300 9,495 9,555 9,252
Non-SRI yield (kg/ha)
7,740
7,650
7,005 7,395 7,575 7,710 7,740 7,545
SRI increment
(t/ha)*1,36
51,78
51,80
0#
1,680
1,725
1,785
1,815#
1,708
SRI % yield
increase *17.6
%23.3
%25.7% 22.7% 22.8% 23.2% 23.5% 22.7%
Grain increase
(tons)1,54
712,9
71103,3
20197,0
08352,7
05450,6
53546,4
361.66 mill
Addl. net income fromSRI use (million
RMB)*1.28
11.64
106.5
205.1
450.8
571.7
704.3
2,051
(>$300 mill)
* Comparison with Sichuan provincial average for paddy yield and SRI returns # Drought years: SRI yields were relatively better than with conventional methods Source: Data are from the Sichuan Provincial Department of Agriculture.
CHINA: SRI extension/impact in Sichuan Province, 2004-10
INDIA: Results from Bihar State, 2007-2012
SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION -- state average yield: 2.3 t/ha
2007 2008 2009 2010 2012
Climatic conditions
Normal rainfall
2x flooding
Drought + rain in Sept.
Complete
drought
Good rainfall
No. of smallholders 128 5,146 8,367 19,911 NR Area under SRI (ha) 30 544 786 1,412 335,000 SRI yield (t/ha) 10.0 7.75 6.5 3.22* 8.08 Conv. yield (t/ha) 2.7 2.36 2.02 1.66* NR
,
SYSTEM OF WHEAT INTENSIFICATION -- state average yield: 2.4 t/ha
2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2011-12 No. of smallholders 415 25,235 48,521 NR Area under SWI (ha) 16 1,200 2,536 183,085 SWI yield (t/ha) 3.6 4.5 NA 5.1 Conv. yield (t/ha) 1.6 1.6 NA NR
* Results from measurements of yield on 74 farmers’ SRI and conventional fields
SRI methods in Bihar set a new world record
Paddy production: Bihar panchayat breaks China’s recordNew Delhi, Mar 20: A gram panchayat in Nalanda district of Bihar has surpassed the Chinese record of paddy production, the Union Agriculture Minister Mr Sharad Pawar informed Parliament today. “As per the reports received from the state government, the yield of wet paddy has been recorded at 22.4 tonnes per hectare and that of dry paddy at 20.16 tonnes a hectare ...,” Mr Pawar said in a written reply to Lok Sabha. The record yield was achieved under demonstration on System of Rice Intensification (SRI) which was organised at farmer’s field during kharif 2011, he added. “It has surpassed the yield of 19 tonnes per hectare which was recorded earlier in China.”
PANO – Vietnam celebrated over a million small-scale farmers who are embracing a technique that grows more rice with less seeds, fertilizer, water, and pesticides in an event at Thai Nguyen University on October 18th.
The technique is called ‘system of rice intensification’ or SRI for short, which is a package of agricultural techniques for hand-planted rice that helps farmers reduce their costs while increasing their production. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reported that by the summer-autumn crop this year, there are 1,070,384 farmers using SRI on 185,065 hectares (457,110 acres) in their rice fields. The number of farmers using SRI practices in Vietnam has tripled since 2009. . . .
OVER 1 MILLION VIETNAMESE FARMERS BENEFIT FROM SRI
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 20:48 (GMT +7)
COSTA RICA: mechanized SRI crop in Guanacaste
province with yield of8 t/ha -- not using chemical
fertilizer
Yield of 8 t/ha vs. 4.2 t/ha before
Mechanized system developed by Oscar Montero, El Pedregal Farm, in Guanacaste province
PAKISTAN: Raised beds for SRI formed on laser-leveled fields in Punjab
Province
Nursery mats made from soil, compost and rice
hulls
Transplanting machine – makes holes at 9 inch spacing
(22.5 cm), with precision-application of small amounts
of compost and fertilizer
Laborers dropping 10-day seedlings into holes which are then filled with
water -- the whole field is flooded just once after transplanting
Weeder/soil aeratorremoving weeds and
breaking up soil crust around plants at 9-inch (22.5cm)
intervals
Mechanically-transplanted and -weeded rice crop, irrigated in furrows with siphon supply
Growing crop: @ 72 days plants have up to
90 tillers
Crop-cut Samples
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 Ave.
Plant number m-2 19 18 21 22 15 18 19 20 21 22 19.5
Plant tillers m-2 397 410 450 370 270 315 312 353 389 279 364
Plant height (cm) 102 98 97 105 100 102 100 102 100 102 110.9
Panicle length (cm)
26 25 26 26 25 24 26 26 26 25 25.5
Straw wt (g m-2) 3,200 3,300 2,150 2,500 2,100 2,800 2,400 3,300 2,000 3,300 2,705
1000 grain wt (g) 30 29 30 30 30 31 30 30 30 30 30
Grain yield m-2 (g) 1,159 1,523 1,243 1,210 2,192 1,530 743 1,274 1,067 901 1,284
Results of crop-cut sample measurements for MSRI trial,
Asif Sharif farm, Dhariwal province, Punjab province, Pakistan, 2009
Rice variety: Omega (hybrid)
COLOMBIA: Mechanical weeder developed for mid-size SRI
operations
Agroecological managementis seen to give crops some buffering against effects of
climate change:• Drought and water stress• Storm damage – wind/rain
(resistance to lodging)• Resistance to pests and diseases
• Also extreme temperatures
Also net reductions in GHG emissions?• Large reductions in methane (CH4)
• Not offset by increase in nitrous oxide (N2O)
Other Benefits from Changes in Practices
1. Water saving – major concern in many places, also now have ‘rainfed’ version with similar results
2. Greater resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses – less damage from pests and diseases, drought, typhoons, flooding, cold spells [discuss tomorrow]
3. Shorter crop cycle – same varieties are harvested by 1-3 weeks sooner, save water, less crop risk
4. High milling output – by about 15%, due to fewer unfilled grains (less chaff) and fewer broken grains
5. Reductions in labor requirements – widely reported incentive for changing practices in India and China; also, mechanization is being introduced many places
6. Reductions in costs of production – greater farmer income and profitability, also health benefits
Drought-resistance: Rice fields in Sri Lanka, same variety and same soil 3 weeks after irrigation had stopped because of drought – conventional rice
field (left) and SRI (right)
Storm resistance: Dông Trù village,Ha Noi province, Vietnam, after
fields were hit bya tropical storm
Right: conventional
field and plant;Left: SRI field
and plant
Same variety usedin both fields:
serious lodging seen on right --
no lodging on left
Disease and pest resistance: Evaluation byVietnam National IPM Program, 2005-06 – averages of data from on-farm trials in 8
provincesSpring season Summer season
SRIplots
Farmer
plots
Differ-ence
SRIplots
Farmerplots
Differ-ence
Sheath blight
6.7% 18.1%
63.0% 5.2% 19.8% 73.7%
Leaf blight -- -- -- 8.6% 36.3% 76.5%
Small leaf folder *
63.4 107.7 41.1% 61.8 122.3 49.5%
Brown plant hopper *
542 1,440 62.4% 545 3,214 83.0%
AVERAGE 55.5% 70.7%
* Insects/m2
Resistance to both biotic and abiotic stresses: fields in East Java, Indonesia hit by both brown
planthopper (BPH) and by storm damage (typhoon): rice field on left was managed with
standard practices; organic SRI is seen on right
Modern improved variety
(Ciherang) – no yield
Traditional
aromatic variety
(Sintanur)
- 8 t/ha
Resistance to cold temperature: Yield and meteorological data from ANGRAU, A.P.,
India
Period Mean max. temp. 0C
Mean min.
temp. 0C
No. of sunshine hrs
1 – 15 Nov 27.7 19.2 4.9
16–30 Nov 29.6 17.9 7.5
1 – 15 Dec 29.1 14.6 8.6
16–31 Dec 28.1 12.2# 8.6# Sudden drop in minimum temp. for 5 days (16–21 Dec
= 9.2-9.9o C )
Season Normal (t/ha) SRI (t/ha)
Kharif 2006 0.21* 4.16
Rabi 2005-06 2.25 3.47
* Low yield was due to cold injury (see below)
Comparison of methane gas emission
CT SRI
kg C
H4
/ ha
0
200
400
600
800
1000
840.1
237.6
72 %
Treatment
Emission (kg/ha)CO2 ton/ha equivalentCH4 N2O
CT 840.1 0 17.6
SRI 237.6 0.074 5.0
Agroecological management
is seen to apply to other crops• Finger millet• Wheat
• Sugar cane• Mustard/canola
• Tef• Legumes
• Vegetables• Other
Wheat: SWI (left) vs. conventional plants in Bihar, India
SWI results in Mali, 2009 – 1st year
• Seed reduction: 94% (10 vs 170 kg/ha)
• Yield increase: 10% (2.2 vs 2.0 t/ha)
• Labor reduction: 40%• Irrigation water reduction: 30%• Problems: mortality, spacing was
too great (25cm x 25cm 20 x 20 cm)
SWI: 10.2 cm Traditional: 4.2 cm
Panicle length: Numbers of tillers 18.4 3.7
Phenotypical differences in wheat panicles
with SWI practice seen
in Nepal
Tef: Application of SRI concepts &
practicesto production of tef
(STI) in Ethiopia
Left: transplanted tefRight: broadcasted
tef
3-5 t/ha vs. 1 t/ha
STI tef crop in Tigray province of Ethiopia
Sugarcane: SSI cane plants seen in
India – SSI is now getting
started in Cuba,known as SiCAS
2 months
4 months
8.5 months
Cuba: 1st SiCAS trial 2012
SicAS sugarcane@ 10.5 monthsEventual yield estimated @
150 t/ha
Crops Yield increases Finger millet 3 to 4x Legumes 50-200% Maize 75% Mustard 3 to 4x Sugarcane 20-100% Tef 3 to 5x Turmeric 25% Vegetables 100-270% Wheat 10-140%
SCI crops are mostly rainfed -- but 30% water saving with wheat and sugarcane, and 66% with turmeric
Summary of results reported from farmers' fields forSystem of Crop Intensification (SCI)
which applies SRI concepts and methods to other crops
All this experience indicates that we have many opportunities for raising agricultural productivity in ways that are cost-effective, environmentally-
friendly, and robust‘Post-modern agriculture’ is not
backward -- it is the most modern agriculture
It is guided by advances in microbiology, soil ecology, epigenetics, and systems
thinking
Much remains to be studied and evaluated, but our challenge is to understand and explain what already
exists -- rather than discover or invent something that is new
For more information on SRI/SCI:
SRI International Network andResources Center (SRI-Rice)
Website: http://sri.ciifad.cornell.edu
based at Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and
Develoment (CIIFAD), Cornell University, or contact
Norman Uphoff: ntu1@cornell.edu