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