A scientific symposium on the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) was organized by Directorate of Agricultural Research on August 6, 2024, in the Birah Magrun sub-district of Dokan district (30 km west of Salymania Governorate). More than 75 government officials, technical staff, and rice farmers attended this symposium; ten farmers expressed a desire to try out SRI methods.Khidhir Abbas Hameed presented a seminar entitled “Positive Opportunities of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) under Current Conditions of Climate Change,” which included justifications for implementing SRI in the Kurdistan Region; overview of SRI principles/practices; and the with SRI methods in the Al-Mishkhab Rice Research Station (MRRS) plots and on farmers' fields in central and southern Iraq.
The effort to bring SRI to Iraqi Kurdistan is especially welcome given the unrest in this region of Iraq over the past few years. This is the second SRI symposium in Kurdistan during the past year, the first taking place in Erbil in May 2024. Thanks to Khidhir Abbas Hameed, a long-time member of the global SRI community, for continuing to expand the borders of the SRI world.