Rockflower is excited to report significant progress in the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) project, which is aimed at transforming rice farming in the Oti Region of Ghana. The project is being undertaken in collaboration with One Africa Research Development and Extension Programme (OARDEP).
Since the project's inception, OARDEP has successfully increased the number of participating farmers to 141, with an emphasis on including women and girls, who now make up 85% of the participants. This expansion is critical in a region where 87% of the population engages in agricultural, predominantly rice cultivation. The project now encompasses five communities—Bala, Mate, Avegeme, Todome, and Abrani.
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research - Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI) has trained Agricultural Extension Agents (AEAs) and farmers on System of Rice Intensification (SRI) activities under the RICOWAS scaling up climate resilient rice production in West Africa project. Dr Issah Sugri, Senior Research Scientist at CSIR-SARI and Project Monitor, said the four-year RICOWAS project, was funded by Adaptation Fund supported by Observatoire Du Sahara Et Du Sahel Sahara and Sahel Observatory. The project, implemented by CSIR-SARI, is to strengthen human and institutional capacity in climate-resilient rice production (CRRP) and also to assist farmers to scale-up CRRP...
SRI-Rice's insight:
The USD 14 million RICOWAS project will be operating in 13 countries in West Africa during the next four years. We also found articles recently on the RICOWAS efforts getting going in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
SRI increases yield and profitability in West African rice farming, especially when locally adapted. Farmers adjust SRI to fit lowland rice farming, where water cannot be controlled and to address labour constraints. Additional labour for transplanting (instead of broadcasting) – coinciding with an existing labour bottleneck – constrains SRI adoption. SRI is mainly practised by marginal and accumulating farmers and to a lesser extent by medium farmers. Accumulating farmers invest in agriculture, farm profit-oriented and overcome labour constraints by hiring. Thus, they can practise SRI on larger scale and their absolute benefits are higher. Nevertheless, they rely on hired labour to do so, which strengthens workers' bargaining position. Consequently, SRI benefits all: accumulating farmers who employ as well as marginal farmers and hired labourers. Contrary to findings from Asia, SRI seems to be relatively pro-poor in West Africa.
This aim of the study, conducted at Golinga irrigation scheme in Ghana, was to investigate how water supply and plant density, components of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), can improve rice yield and reduce water use. Water control and planting distance interaction significantly influenced plant height where intermittent flooding promoted taller plants in narrow and wider planting distance (20 x 20 cm and 40 x 40 cm). Days to 50% flowering lengthened with increasing planting distance. Tiller and reproductive tiller number per plant increased with increasing planting distance. Intermittent flooding and increased spacing induced better root development. Panicle number per unit area, paddy grain yield and straw weight performed best under 25 x 25 cm planting distance. Paddy yield of 5.2 ton/ha at 25 x 25 cm was above the national average. Intermittent and continuous flooding gave a similar performance. Increasing plant spacing helps to improve individual hill performance.
In conclusion, the study shows that wider spacing improves individual hill performance but if the plant density is low the higher individual hill performance cannot compensate for the reduced plant density. Intermittent flooding of rice does not put the crop in a disadvantageous position as it elicited similar response as continuous condition. Farmers are recommended to increase planting distance of rice to between 20 x 20 cm and 25 x 25 cm and apply water intermittently.
The President of the Ghana Rice Inter-professional Body (GRIB), Nana Agyei Ayeh II, speaking at the fifth Ghana National Rice Festival held in Accra on Friday, said incentives (access to credit, provision of mechanisation services, and concessionary financing) could motivate the farmers to "intensify production by adopting tried-and-tested technology of systems of rice intensification (SRI) to increase yield and boost production by at least 50 per cent."
The Ghana Rice Inter-Professional Body (GRIB) has developed a certification logo, a mark of quality rice that will be on all Ghana Rice brands to promote locally produced rice. This certification is aimed at promoting the consumption of Ghana Rice among rice consumers in the country. According to GRIB president, Imoro Amoro, “.. To be able to compete with others in the market and eliminate the idea local rice is inferior, we need to produce good quality rice that meets the expectation of consumers...We are training the farmers with a system known as rice intensification -- a system based on transplanting instead of the traditional broadcasting method, whereby one seed can grow so much rice and the paddy also comes out clean and of very high quality. So this is what we are doing to improve the quality of the local rice.”
Dr. George Acheampong, Southern Zone Coordinator for the System of Rice Intensification in Ghana, is encouraging the government to help SRI rice farmers mechanize.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI) has outdoored its System of Rice Intensification (SRI) technology and potentials of recently released rice varieties. At a day’s visit for farmers at Botanga in the Kumbungu, the efficiency, and the benefits of the SRI technology was introduced to the farmers in the area […]
Agricultural Extension Agents (AEAs) in the northern sector have attended a two-day training workshop during July to enhance their capacity on the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) technology. The training, organised by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI), formed part of the Scaling up of Climate Resilient Rice Production in West Africa (RICOWAS Project). In Ghana, the project is being carried out in the Northern, North East, Upper East, Savannah, Volta, Oti, Western North and the Ashanti Regions.
SRI-Rice's insight:
[Togo also held an SRI trainer event during July]. The 13-country $14 million RICWAS Project in West Africa, which is funded by the Adaptation Fund and supported by Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel Sahara and Sahel Observatory, held the initial region-wide SRI training effort in Cote d'Ivoire, last April. Togo and several other countries have subsequently held national training-of-trainer and extension efforts in mid-2024..
The Adaptation Fund (AF) has just approved the “Scaling up Climate Resilient Rice Production in West Africa” (RICOWAS) project, during the thirty-seventh board meeting, held on October 19-21, 2021.
With a four-year implementation period, RICOWAS is the largest regional project funded by the AF in Africa with a total amount of $ 14 million and affecting thirteen ECOWAS countries; namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. The project focuses on scaling-up SRI in combination with agro-ecozone specific Sustainable Land and Water Management (SLWM) practices, which is being coined as Climate-Resilient Rice Production (CRRP). The overall purpose of the project is to improve climate resilience and increase the productivity of the rice system of smallholder rice farmers in West Africa by adopting a climate-resilient rice production approach.
Some studies consider the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) method of rice production as more profitable than the conventional method. Others, however, claim that there is no significant difference in yields between the two methods. The study was designed to identify which of the two methods of rice production is more profitable in Ghana. Two-stage sampling technique was used to select 220 farmers, comprising 110 farmers under each of the two methods of rice production which are predominant in Ejura-Sekyedumase Municipality and Sekyere East District of the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The study revealed that, while farmers under the SRI method obtain GH¢60.68 for every GH¢100.00 sale of rice, farmers under the conventional method obtained GH¢44.04 per every GH¢100.00. The study concludes that SRI, though a little more costly, is more profitable resulting from a higher yield brought on by the adoption of best agronomic practices associated with the method. Based on the empirical results, the authors recommend the promotion of the System of Rice Intensification in Ghana through awareness creation, extension services and training.
Rice is the second most important staple food in Ghana. The system of rice intensification (SRI) technology has been introduced in farmers' fields, and its adoption is increasing. Using a bivariate probit model and maximum likelihood estimation methods, the study tests whether or not there is a complementarity relationship between adoption of SRI technology and membership in a cooperative. Results reveal that there is positive relationship between the SRI adoption and social capital participation. The study identified covariates including age, gender and educational level of respondents as influencing both the adoption of SRI technology and participation in a cooperative
SRI-Rice's insight:
Yahaya, Iddrisu, et al. 2019. Complementarity of technology adoption and social capital participation: The case of Systems of Rice Intensification in Ghana. Journal of International Development (online first July 1). doi: 10.1002/jid.3420
50,000 Farmers in 13 Countries: Results from Scaling up the System of Rice Intensification in West Africa is a publication by Dr Erika Styger and Dr Gaoussou Traore, written for the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Research and Development, (CORAF/WECARD), Africa's largest sub-regional research organization. The 120-page book documents the results of using the SRI approach in rice farmers’ fields in 13 West African countries between 2014 and 2016: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
SRI-Rice's insight:
Our SRI-Rice Center was the technical lead on this World Bank-funded project, which Erika Styger and Devon Jenkins worked on from 2013 to 2016.
The results of the study revealed that SRI plants responded better to the soil amendments and were superior to those using farmer practice in all parameters measured. See the freely available article for a detailed description of the various treatments studied.
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See also related article "CSIR-SARI showcases SRI technology to scale up climate-resilient rice production" about related work in Botanga in the Kumbungu in Ghana.