In Saint Louis, northern Senegal, farmers have had to buy extra rice to feed their families for as long as anyone can remember. “Normally, people can only live off the rice they grow for a few months,” according to Abdoulaye Sy, director at the government’s National Agricultural and Rural Advisory Agency (ANCAR). The rest of the time, people buy rice from wholesalers, hoisting 20-kilogram (44-pound) burlap sacks onto communal minibuses or horse-drawn carts for the long ride home.
But since officials at ANCAR introduced a new method for growing rice, called the “system of rice intensification” (SRI), yields have more than doubled. For the first time, according to ANCAR, families can live off their own crop and make money from the surplus.to
A la demande de la coopérative Gouantina en début de campagne, la DreamTeam Douna piloté par Albert COMPAORE met en place un champ école de riziculture intensive dans l'optique de mieux enseigner les bonnes pratiques culturales de production de riz. La coopérative Gouantina est une coopérative composée de 65 femmes productrice de riz. Pour le champ école l'agent à terrain Albert à mis deux parcelles de 200m2. Sur la première parcelle les bonnes techniques de production du riz en système de riziculture intensive (SRI) ont été mise en place...
SRI-Rice's insight:
At the request of the Gouantina cooperative (made up of 65 women who produce rice) the "DreamTeam Douna" of the NGO PlantVillage set up a SRI field school for SRI. On a plot of 200m2 the traditional practice yielded 20kg (exptrapolated to 2t/ha) while the SRI plot yielded 35kg (extrapolated to 3.5t/ha). As they saw the profitability associated with SRI methods, the women in the cooperative decided to adopt the methods.
...Between July and August, 2022, The World Food Program (WFP) and FAO Identified and trained 150 farmers in 15 villages in Gabú, Bafatá and Quinara regions on the principles of the System of Rice Intensification technique (SRI). This technique allows smallholder farmers to increase rice crop productivity while decreasing the quantity of water, seeds and chemicals used. Previously tested in Guinea-Bissau by local agronomists, SRI led to a four-fold increase in yields compared to traditional techniques. Through this pilot, funded by the SDG Joint Fund, WFP and FAO wish to further test SRI with local communities to appraise its potential for rice production in the country.
SRI-Rice's insight:
This is the first report we've had from Guinea-Bissau, so we were very glad to hear of the four-fold increase in yield!
Africa-Press – Liberia. A recipient of UNDP’s agricultural grants has launched commercial seed rice, which is expected to increase local rice production and reduce reliance on rice imports. The Community of Hope Agriculture Project (CHAP) received a grant to produce climate smart agriculture seed rice in Montserrado and Lofa counties using a methodology known as System of Rice Intensification (SRI). Speaking at the launch, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative for Programme Violet Baffour stressed the need to scale up support to small farmers and cooperatives as part of efforts to eliminate extreme poverty, and end hunger and malnutrition in Liberia.
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.
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.
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.
Stakeholders in the agricultural sector of Liberia have validated a climate-resilient rice production project (CRRP) that is expected to benefit about 13,620 smallholder rice farmers in five of the fifteen counties.
According to the Executive Director of the Community of Hope Agriculture Project (CHAP), Mr. Robert Bimba, the project seeks to improve the resilience to climate change and increase productivity of smallholder rice farmers throughout West African using a more climate-adapted production approach, the System of Rice Intensification (SRI). The project is to be implemented by CHAP in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and partners in five counties (Lofa, Bong, Nimba, Bomi, and Grand Gedeh). The Climate Resilient Rice Production Project in West AFRICA (RICOWAS) is funded by Adaption Fund.
The "System of Rice Intensification" (SRI) represents a sustainable alternative to improve household yields and incomes. This study aimed to evaluate the yields and the profitability of the SRI and the Traditional Practices (TP) in Ziguinchor district, Senegal... 18 producers in the Badiate, Essyl, and Fanda sites were involved in direct trials and an individual questionnaire was randomly administered to 55 producers using at least one of the systems to collect data on rice production and costs. The yield and yield parameters, including the number of fertile tillers per m2, the number of spikes, and the weight of 1000 grains, are significantly higher (p<0.05) with SRI compared to the traditional system. Transplanting density and plant duration are higher in TP (26±5.6 plants/m2 and 26 days) than in SRI (16±0.4 plants/m2 and 16 days). The lower the transplanting density, the higher the yield parameters and the yield. The economic profitability, determined based on the benefit/cost ratio, is higher in SRI (1.5) than in TP (1.2). The SRI required a lot of technicality in its implementation and generated more cost of production. However, SRI was more productive and economically more profitable than the traditional system.
Fonio may be Africa’s oldest cultivated cereal crop, with an ancient lineage going back more than 5,000 years. Because it matures quickly rural communities have long counted on fonio to bridge the lean season between harvests. Now, a research project carried out by Cornell’s Climate-Resilient Farming Systems (CRFS) program and the NGO 3-A Sahel in Mali has found that, after two years of study, farmers in the Mopti region almost doubled their yields of fonio by adapting System of Rice Intensification (SRI) principles.
Significantly less seed was needed (12 kilograms per hectare compared to 20) and plants were taller, stronger and had more tillers, or shoots, sprouting off from the main stem to produce more seeds. Yolélé Foods, which is determined to bring fonio to a wider audience, is helping fonio farmers wilth better milling technology and marketing.
The Sustainable Rice Intensification is an innovation promoted by the Green Innovation Centres that aims at enhancing farmer's productivity and at the same time reducing the ecological footprint in the rice sector. The video was taken during a field trip to Mali in October 2019. (Video is in French).
A Borgen Project article covers several crops that are fighting poverty around the world: Potatoes in China, cassava in sub-Saharan Africa, rice in Sierra Leone, pearl millet in India and more. ...Rice in Sierra Leone: Agriculture accounts for 57% of Sierra Leone’s GDP, with rice reigning as the primary staple crop. However, as of 2011, the nation was a net rice importer due to struggles with planting efficiency. The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) was developed to increase rice crop yield and decrease the labor necessary for upkeep. This method requires the use of organic fertilizers, tighter regulations for watering quantities, greater spacing between seeds to decrease plant competition and rotary hoes for weeding. As of 2014, 10,865 individuals had implemented this strategy in Sierra Leone. SRI has enabled rice to become one of the crops that is fighting poverty by increasing crop production from two to six tons per hectare...
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.
The official launch of the RICOWAS project « Scaling up climate-resilient rice production in West Africa », took place on January 18, 2023 in Bamako, Mali. The project is financed by the Adaptation Fund (AF) and implemented by the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) with the collaboration of the Regional Center of Specialization on Rice, hosted by the Institute of Rural Economy of Mali (CRS-Riz/IER), the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (WECARD) and the Cornell University, for a 14M USD budget over a 4-year period. The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is a major component of the project.
The Community of Hope Agriculture (CHAP) in Liberia has extended operations in neighboring Mano River countries (Sierra Leone and Guinea). Together with Guinean partners, a new CHAP project, entitled "FEED La Guinea," has kicked off with SRI trial plots on two hectares in Kalako, Guinea, with over 100 smallholder farmers coming together to learn SRI methods. The first rice was transplanted July 15, 2022. The vision of feeding Guinea with home-grown rice is resonating with key stakeholders. Most of the farming groups are women-dominated and eager to learn more about SRI for the first time. To ensure that what farmers produce is bought in a timely manner, CHAP is working on launching the “I love Guinea Rice” and “Feed la Guinea” campaigns to get a buy-in from consumers for local home-grown rice.
More and more rice farmers in Africa are turning to the System of Rice Intensification (SRI). This technique is beneficial to them because it reduces production costs and provides higher yields. The benefits of this technique have allowed producers such as Marcel Yao Kouakou to become known as a model rice producer in Côte d'Ivoire. In 2013, he was awarded the Excellence Prize for best national producer in irrigated rice production in Cote d'Ivoire and in 2015, he was awarded the second Knight of the Order of Agricultural Merit medal at the "Salon de l'Agriculture et des Ressources Animales."
La Côte d’Ivoire s’engage à réduire ses émissions de gaz à effet de serre de 30,41 % d’ici à 2030, selon son ministre de l’Environnement et du développement durable, Jean-Luc Assi. M. Assi a fait cette déclaration, mercredi à Glasgow (Ecosse), lors d’un panel de haut niveau portant sur la présentation des nouvelles ambitions des pays dans un contexte de révision générale des contributions déterminées au niveau national (CDN)...
...Les commerces, les transports et les industries figurent également sur cette liste de même que la promotion de pratiques agricoles intelligentes face au climat, la mise œuvre à grande échelle du système de riziculture intensif (SRI), la mise en œuvre de décharges modernes et de centres de valorisation et d’enfouissement technique avec récupération de méthane, sont également au nombre des actions prévues par l'Etat ivoirien.
SRI-Rice's insight:
Côte d'Ivoire is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 30.41% by 2030, according to its Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Jean-Luc Assi. ...Commerce, transport and industries are also on this list as well as the promotion of climate-smart agricultural practices, the large-scale implementation of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), the implementation of modern landfills and recovery and technical landfill centers with methane recovery are also among the actions planned by the Ivorian State.
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.
An understanding of how the System of Rice Intensification method of the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) has influenced sustainable solutions to smallholder paddy farmers’ challenges of poor yield and marketing in Kindia Prefecture, Guinea informed this study. Causal research design was used, involving a survey of 126 beneficiaries and 78 non-beneficiaries of WAAPP. Data were collected mainly on the farmers’ enterprise characteristics: improvement in productivity, sales, and income from paddy.
WAAPP- and non-WAAPP-participating farmers had >10 years of farming experience. Most WAAPP farmers (67.5%) achieved higher sales and income from paddy than in the past. The productivity of the WAAPP farmers was higher and significantly different from that of the non-WAAPP farmers. Farmers’ opinion of market prospects after waapp intervention and their age significantly influenced their change in productivity. The WAAPP increased paddy production.
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.
In March 2021, Chia Benard (Ben) Ful, coordinator of the local NGO BARUDEV in the northwest Cameroon community of Mbueni, Boyo division, reported on the performance of BARUDEV’s SRI progress. Many farmers have more than doubled their yield with SRI methods; the field at left yielded two bags where previously less than one bag was obtained. And only 3-5 kg of seed was used vs 20 kg, a substantial and important saving. Because of the ongoing armed conflict in the region, markets have been disrupted; rice in the market is scarce and more costly. Most households are now subsistence producers. Any rice that is not needed as seed can be saved for household consumption in a rather dire situation of food insecurity. Ben writes, “With the crisis and Covid affecting us, better rice production can reduce hunger and poverty and also reduce malnutrition in children and those displaced by the armed conflict. We need to extend SRI into many communities as the demand for rice keeps increasing...
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.
Cette technique contribuera en 10 ans à l’augmentation de 10% de la production nationale de riz. Ce qui profitera à 244.962 producteurs/productrices pour un coût estimé à 14 milliards de Fcfa.
Le Centre des innovations vertes pour le secteur agro-alimentaire de la GIZ Mali (CIV/GIZ-Mali), a fait hier la promotion du Système de riziculture intensive (SRI). C’était à l’occasion d’un atelier de partage du Programme national de système de riziculture intensif (PN-SRI).
SRI-Rice's insight:
This technique (SRI) will contribute in 10 years to the increase of 10% of the national rice production. This will benefit 244,962 producers at an estimated amount of 14 billion CFA francs. The Center for Green Innovations for the Agro-Food Sector of GIZ Mali (CIV / GIZ-Mali) yesterday promoted the System of Intensive Rice Cultivation (SRI) during a workshop of the National Intensive Rice Cultivation System Program (PN-SRI)..."
This paper examined the factors influencing rice productivity in Kenya's Mwea Irrigation Scheme using the System of rice intensification (SRI) and conventional flooding (CF). Analysis of 364 farmer interviews with an Endogenous Switching regression Model (ESRM) revealed that factors such as household size, access to extension services, involvement in off-farm work, distance from the canal, farm size, labour use, access to credit services and years spent in rice farming were significant in explaining variations in rice productivity. The gross margin analysis showed that the returns of SRI outweigh the returns of CF, thus making SRI more profitable than CF.
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.
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