System of Rice Intensification



A rice paddy using SRI

       The department that I work in is the Farm and Agricultural Sector. Our main project in this department is the System of Rice Intensification (SRI). What we basically do is go into all the surrounding villages and try to convince them to switch from their traditional method of growing rice to the SRI system. SRI is a more eco-friendly system that at the same time increases crop yields tremendously while using less rice seeds. It also decreases the amount of water needed to grow crops.  We went into the field and held a meeting in one of the villages. There we showed the villagers why switching to SRI would benefit them. Many of the villagers were impressed with the pictures that we showed them of successes using SRI in other villages. This will be followed by actual demonstrations of how to implement this technique in the rice paddies. Hopefully we can get them to start planting next week!

 

A Non-SRI rice plant (left) vs. an SRI rice plant (right)