The System of Rice Intensification (SRI): revisiting agronomy for a changing climate
By modifying management of rice plants, soil, water and nutrients to improve growth environments, farmers can get higher-yielding, more vigorous and resilient plants nurtured by larger root systems and greater diversity/abundance of beneficial soil organisms. More productive phenotypes from available genotypes enhance farmers income and security while reducing their costs and water requirements.
The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) as a knowledge-based methodology increases the productivity and resilience of rice, and more recently also of other crops. Its simple changes of agronomic practices were assembled in close collaboration with farmers during the 1970s-80s in Madagascar. Since 2000, SRI has been spreading to other countries.
- SRI methodology for rice production contributes to all three pillars of CSA
- SRI proceeds from a set of agronomic principles that enable farmers to adapt their production practices more beneficially to their local environments
- SRI methodology aims at eliciting the full expression of each individual plants genetic potentials
- SRI is creating CSA impacts in a wide range of eco-zones and rice production systems in over 50 countries. SRI is also successfully adapted to other crops