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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Miracle grow: Indian rice farmer uses controversial method for record crop-John Vidal
-The Guardian
 

Tamil Nadu farmer produces bumper crop four times larger than average using system of rice intensification

An Indian farmer has set a state and possibly a national record for growing rice using a neglected method of cultivation that has been dismissed by academic researchers and received little financial backing from agribusiness.

According to Jaisingh Gnanadurai, joint director of agriculture in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, farmer S Sethumadhavan from Alanganallur has harvested a record yield of nearly 24 tonnes of paddy rice per hectare using the system of rice intensification method (SRI).

"This is a state record. The Tamil Nadu government has advocated a second green revolution by using more organic fertiliser and less inorganic fertiliser. Our chief minister's aim is to get double the yield and triple the income of farmers using SRI," Gnanadurai said.

The SRI method of growing crops has been developed over 30 years by small farmers in more than 20 countries. It centres on improving the management of the soil, water and nutrients, rather than bolstering the seed, which has been the focus of scientific research for decades.

SRI involves significantly reducing the number of rice seeds planted, transplanting them to the fields when they are much younger than usual, using different amounts of water at critical times of their growth cycle, and improving soil conditions with organic manure.

The system is more labour-intensive but has generated extraordinary results. Two years ago, Bihari farmer Sumant Kumar set what is thought to be a world record for rice growing, harvesting 22.4 tonnes of paddy rice per hectare using SRI methods.

Although his crop, in Nalanda district, northern India, was measured and verified by state officials, it was challenged by rice scientists in the Philippines and China. Experts claimed the measurements were fake and suggested it was impossible to produce a yield so large.

Sethumadhavan, who has been farming for 15 years, said last week that he used a mix of organic and chemical fertilisers and the common CR1009 rice seed. Although it is a high-yielding variety, it would not be expected to produce more than about six tonnes per hectare. The average yield of most rice varieties is about three tonnes.

SRI, developed in Madagascar nearly 30 years ago, has been encouraged by some development groups and state governments because it has consistently produced higher average yields than conventional rice farming. It needs fewer seeds, and less water and chemical fertiliser.

According to the SRI International Network and Resources Center at Cornell University in the US, the method has been adopted by at least 9.5 million farmers in Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam and the main rice-growing countries. One million farmers in other countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East are also thought to be using it.

This week SRI International played down the bumper yield in Tamil Nadu, saying not too much notice should be paid to statistical "outliers". "[It is] averages that feed hungry people and raise farmers out of poverty, not records," said Norman Uphoff, professor of international agriculture at Cornell.

According to the Bihar government, where hundreds of thousands of hectares are grown using SRI methods, average yields are at least 40% larger than for conventional rice farming - and possibly far more.

In Tamil Nadu, farmers are experiencing similar increases and are paying less. "Our chief minister's aim is to get double the yield and triple the income of farmers using SRI. Traditional farmers use 30kg of seeds [compared with] 3kg by the SRI method," Gnanadurai said.

But SRI has received little support from corporations and university research groups, most of which have concentrated on trying to improve seeds using biotechnology or traditional plant-breeding techniques.

The reason, say some critics, could be because there are strong financial and other vested interests to promoting hybrid seeds as the solution to food shortages in India and elsewhere. Hybrid crops are big business because they require not just the purchase of seeds but also fertilisers and agrochemicals. Many farmers have been convinced by political leaders that the only way to improve their production is to purchase seeds, fertiliser and chemicals.

According to the records of the Tamil Nadu farm ministry who advised him, Sethumadhavan ploughed a green manure crop, dhaincha, into the soil as an organic manure, alternated the crop between wet and dry conditions, did not allow water to stagnate, placed the rice seedlings further apart than normal and topped up the nutrient supply with inorganic fertiliser. The only machine he used was a hand-pushed weeder developed for SRI rice crops.

The bottom line for small farmers is the extra money that can be earned from SRI. According to the official Tamil Nadu register, Sethumadhavan would have earned about 98,000 rupees (£970) if he grew the rice conventionally on his five acres of land. Instead the farmer's additional income from the SRI crop was 26,500 rupees.

The Guardian, 13 May, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/may/13/
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