This study undertook to identify a ‘best-bet’ version of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) for conditions in northwestern Nigeria, considering what is feasible for farmer use. Two years of experimental data from 260 farmer-managed rice plots evaluating four of the SRI practices in Zamfara State were analyzed. The variables evaluated were seedling age at transplanting, plant density, irrigation schedule, and fertilizer application. Farm budget analysis showed that the best-bet SRI practices most productive given the natural environment and farming system were transplanting 11-day-old seedlings at 25 cm × 25 cm spacing, with alternate wetting-and-drying of fields, as well as providing full compost plus some inorganic fertilization.
Net economic returns were found to be highest with best-bet SRI practices and ranged from USD 1450–2120 ha−1. While rice production was profitable under both SRI and more conventional management, the return on investment was at least 40% higher with SRI practices than with the other practices evaluated. Based on our data and analysis, we recommend that the Nigerian government and its development partners prioritize and expand the testing and promotion of SRI in the northwest and other regions of the country. This initiative can significantly enhance farmers’ incomes and, ultimately, bolster food security.
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.
Rice farmers in Jigawa state have received climate-smart training on a system of rice intensification (SRI), a new approach to rice production that increases crop productivity and reduces methane emissions by at least 22 per cent to a maximum of 64 per cent. The training was part of a tripartite partnership between the Foreign and Common Wealth Development Office (FCDO) of the British Government through its intervention on investment promotion under the LINKS Project, the Jigawa state government, and a leading commodity trading firm Silvex International Limited.
Climate-Smart Rice Farming and Environment Smart Rice Farming are being used interchangeably to refer to the system of rice farming that sustainably increases productivity, enhances adaptive capacity and reduces greenhouse gas emissions where possible. Rice farming today is faced with several agronomic and environmental challenges related to the intensification of production. Deceleration in the growth of rice yields, soil depletion, growing water use, increasing water and air pollution as well as climate change are some of the biggest areas of concern... System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is one of the proven techniques to ensure environmental smart rice farming practice.
“Rice is both a victim and a cause of climate change,” says Sunny Verghese, CEO of Singapore-based Olam’s, which grows its own rice on 25,000 acres in Nigeria, owns mills and processing plants across south-east Asia and ships nearly 20% of the world’s globally traded rice.
“SRI should influence everyone’s thinking. In Nigeria we saw a 70% increase in yields, albeit from a low base. SRI is revolutionary. It is a genuine change in thinking. It is difficult for scientists to understand that an amateur [like Lalanié] should have a solution. We want to partner with SRI, to scale up in Africa.
An ongoing effort at the regional level is aiming at improving rice production through empowering rural farmers to achieve that objective. Presently, the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is helping to bring rural farmers closer to food self-sufficiency in over 50 countries with the help of organizations like the West and Central African Council for […]
The UK LINKS programme (Powering Economic Growth in Northern Nigeria), which began in 2021, is a £12m UK government-funded programme designed to support development of a vibrant, inclusive, and diversified economy in three northern Nigeria States of Kano, Kaduna and Jigawa. The aim was for farmers to increase yields and become more resilient in the face of climate change while reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in the country. As a result of the work with the System of Rice Intensification, 45,000 farmers were trained over four seasons, and over 26,000 farmers in Kano, Kaduna, and Jigawa are now actively using SRI. On average yields were doubled, costs were lowered, farmer income were six times highter, and GHG emissions were reduced by 40%.
This is a presentation about the SRI efforts by the LINKS program, Catalysing Economic Growth for Northern Nigeria. It was authored by Tetra Tech International Development, who is implementing SRI activities in Jigawa and Kano States in order to raise farmer incomes by increasing yields while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, seed utilization, and water consumption in a commercially and environmentally sustainable manner.
One of a series of short videos on the System of Rice Intensification in Zamfara State, Nigeria, produced by the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS), which is working collaboratively with the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) and the Centre for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM) on the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) activities in this World Bank-sponsored project of Transforming Irrigation Management in Nigeria (TRIMING) in Zamfara State.
Tanzanians who participated in the System of Rice Intensification training shared their stories of how a new rice growing system improved their lives. A bottom-up and more inclusive approach led to a successful outcome. Tanzania is one of the participating countries in the “Partnership for Sustainable Rice Systems Development in Sub-Saharan Africa” project within the framework of South-South Cooperation. Tanzania has achieved a tremendous impact on farmers in five irrigation schemes’ regional districts. Besides Tanzania, the project supported Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Conakry, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda.
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.
Daily Trust: The Institute for Agricultural Research of the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria is training 1000 Bakolori farmers on new farming techniques tagged System of Rice Intensification for sustainable rice production.
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