SRI Global News: Aug - Oct. 2024 *SRI-Rice -- System of Rice Intensification

The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is an environmentally sustainable farming method which has enabled growers from the Kapunga Village in Tanzania’s Mbarali district to boost their income and nutrition. Under the Capacity Building Related to Multilateral Environmental Agreements project in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Countries-Phase III (ACP MEAs 3) funded by the EU, the FAO project aims to support local farmers by training them in adopting SRI.

The initiative encourages smallholders to participate in Farmer Field Schools (FFSs), offering them group plots of land and  SARO 5  seeds to practice SRI. ACP MEAs 3 helps farmers transition to more resilient and productive agrifood systems by offering training and capacity building in ecosystem-based practices that promote the sustainable resource management, protect the environment, and improve food security.

Achieving Food Security while using water and land resources in a sustainable manner is a major challenge to any country. Agriculture’s success is therefore hinged on effectively using innovation to increase productivity and ensure profitability while managing natural resources. With this in mind, ARIFU, an educational technology company in conjunction with JKUAT’s Prof. Bancy Mati came up with a digital System of Rice Intensification (SRI) training app for rice farmers in Kenya. The app is an important source of information for the farmers on practices towards an increase in rice water productivity.

The ARIFU platform is an interactive chatbot that offers agronomic advice and financial skills training to farmers through mobile phones, giving them access to much-needed information. “This app will be accessible to anyone with a mobile phone and will be important in providing up-to-date information to farmers on the new and improved farming practices,” said Prof. Mati who also Chairperson of the Association of Irrigation Acceleration Platform (AIAP).

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.

The Community of Hope Agriculture Project (CHAP), under the National Executing Entity (NEE-CHAP), is spearheading the Scaling up of Climate Resilient Rice Production Project organized by the Rice Production Improvement Consortium of West Africa (RICOWAS) in Liberia.
In Liberia, RICOWAS targets 13,620 farmers across 2,641 hectares in six project zones.  Training sessions, including a TOT in Montserrado County and five other project zones, focus on SRI and CRRP, aiming to strengthen the skills of extension service providers and farmers

The Community of Hope Agriculture Project (CHAP) is implementing Climate Smart Agriculture under the Livelihood Innovation Food Security Entrepreneurship (LIFE) Project with funding from Irish Aid through Concern Worldwide Liberia. The project, which began in Grand Bassa, Liberia, during 2023 and extended to Rivercess in February 2024, is currently working with 25 smallholder farmers per community, which comprises a total of 214 smallholder farmers who are being introduced to the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) for rice cultivation.

Since the introduction of the SRI in Grand Bassa County, farmer groups like the one in Crayton Estate, have been able to grow rice twice in a year with less external inputs. The resulting SRI adoption has proven sustainable for farming thus far and is achieving high yields. In addition to SRI methods for production, CHAP has created a market for the SRI farmers’ out-grower scheme across the country in support of the “I love Liberian rice” domestic rice production in keeping with the Ministry of Agriculture’s National Agriculture Development Plan (NADP), which includes cultivation of 50,000 ha of lowland rice across the country from 2023 to 2030.

The Sustainable Rice NDC Alliance continues to support its core aim of implementing high-yield low-emission rice agriculture by elevating rice-related NDC commitments. SRI-2030, the Alliance secretariat, is now focusing its support on Africa, although it will continue to support all nations pursuing sustainable rice production.

The Alliance continues to work directly with governments to design rice roadmaps with a current focus on West African nations. These are practical implementation plans combining agricultural policies such as National Rice Development Strategies or Climate Smart Agriculture frameworks with climate policy commitments as in countries’ NDCs. 

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Events:
A Focus on Finance meeting was followed by a panel on Food and Agriculture in Dubai in November 2023. Other recent activities include co-hosting a February workshop in Nairobi on African Paddy Rice Greenhouse Gas Mitigation. and an April webinar with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) to examine how the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) can contribute to climate and development objectives  of the Bank’s goals.

[A French version of this document is also available.]

Rice farmers have expressed their satisfaction with the project of System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in Tanzania that helps them withstand  the effects of climate change and reduce production costs; at the same time, productivity is double that of conventional agriculture. This was stated during the SRI Stakeholders Annual workshop held in Mbeya Region on January 24 through 27, 2024,  at the centre of Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute - TARI Uyole. While sharing his  testimony, Mr. Filbert Kadebe a farmer from Mkula scheme found in Kilombero District, Morogoro Region, said that with SRI he managed to reduce cost by using 2 to 3 kilograms of seeds per hectare from the 30 kilograms he used to plant. Kadebe continued  say that in SRI, with mat nursery technology it’s much easier for farmers to simplify the transplanting exercise as well as managing to transplant a single seedling.

The SRI project is implemented by the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) in collaboration with the Norwegian Institute of Bio economy research (NIBIO) and the Swamination Research Institute (MSSRF) based in India.

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