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Farmers in
our village and all the villages of the region
cultivate two crops, rice being the main one. It
is because the canal network from River Sone
provides the water required for paddy crop. When
I go back in my childhood, I vividly remember
one aspect of paddy cultivation. I have not been
able to forget that lively scene with numbers of
women transplanting the paddy seedlings in
ploughed rice fields full with water and singing
the folk songs related to the occasion in
Bhojpuri. Over the years, things have changed.
Contracted male members hired from distant
villages of North-East Bihar districts
specialized in the operation carry out the task
of transplantation. As my brother tells me, they
do it better using less number of seedlings. I
got reminded of the change, when I read about
SRI for enhancing the rice yield significantly
in ‘Outlook- Business’.
According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF),
India needs to increase its rice production by
2.5 million tonnes a year to meet its
requirement in 2050. Rice output needs to
increase by 92% from the current 140 million
tonnes to meet the domestic demand in 2050.
India can attain that to a great extent with
‘the system of rice intensification (SRI)’
developed 20 years ago by Father Henri de
Laulanie, a Jesuit priest in Madagascar.
The SRI process requires younger and fewer
seedlings transplanted with wider spacing; and
it doesn’t need wasteful continuous flooding for
irrigation. As claimed, SRI can increase rice
yields to up to 15-20 tonnes per hectare. With
India’s average rice yield of 3.1 tonnes per
hectare, SRI has the potential to bring about
significant increase in rice productivity and
production—that too with fewer inputs and at a
lower cost.
About 5,000 litres of water is required for just
one kg of rice in the conventional ‘flooding of
the field’ method. SRI uses 25-50% less water.
Instead of flooding paddy fields, SRI requires
only the root zones be kept moist. It also cuts
seed requirement by an astonishing 95%. Fewer
seedlings are planted, with more space between
them. India cultivates rice on about 45 million
hectares. One can calculates the benefits
easily.
Studies show that the net returns per hectare of
rice farmers who adopted SRI was 67% higher than
those who followed the conventional method. A
farmer in Andhra Pradesh reported to achieve a
rice yield of 17.3 tonnes per hectare. It may be
an exception. But an increase of around 2 tonnes
per hectare—64% more than current levels—is very
much achievable.
SRI has been included in the National Food
Security Mission, which talks about increasing
rice production by 10 million tonnes by 2012. As
reported, "about 100,000 hectares is under SRI,
which can be scaled up to 500,000 hectares in
the next five years." SRI is said to have a
presence in 130 of the 500 rice-growing
districts. However, that’s only 1.1% of the
total rice area under cultivation. One can
imagine the increase in the rice production, if
switch is judiciously increased. Instead of
imposing ban on basmati rice export, the
government can work more seriously on this
change over and providing better input including
genuine fertilizers and better seeds. Why can’t
our scientists achieve what the Chinese can?
The agricultural scientists "are trying this
system for other crops, like wheat and madua (ragi)."
Experiments with wheat in Dehradun saw yields
increase from 18 quintals per hectare to 21
quintals per hectare. Similarly, traditional
methods of growing sugarcane, another thirsty
crop, require 10 tonnes of seed buds per
hectare, SRI methods require only one tonne; as
for the yield, it can increase from 65 tonnes
per hectare to 144 tonnes.
A state like Bihar and other states of the
eastern India that can become the granary of the
country, must go for the switch over gradually.
I fail to understand why a proven process of
improved cultivation and means to bring
prosperity in rural India can’t be adopted fast.
Many a times, it seems our politicians intends
to keep the region backward enough for their
selfish manipulations as vote banks.
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