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Agriculture | Rice and shine -Dnyanesh Jathar

Rice and shine -Dnyanesh Jathar

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published Published on Jan 6, 2014   modified Modified on Jan 6, 2014
-The Week


A revolutionary farming system is working wonders in Nalanda district

Nalanda: If not for an agricultural technique known as SRI (system of rice intensification), Sumant Kumar of Darveshpura in Bihar's Nalanda district would have remained a faceless farmer. In 2012, with the help of the state agriculture department, he tried out SRI on an acre that usually bore only modest yields. It worked, and Sumant got a bumper harvest. An evaluation of 50sq.m revealed that the yield rate was 22 tonnes of paddy per hectare, more than the world record of 19.4 tonnes by Yuan Longping, the Chinese agricultural scientist known as the father of hybrid rice.

The golden harvest brought Sumant international fame. Last year, President Pranab Mukherjee conferred on him a national agriculture award. "The land where the world record yield was achieved was a demo plot supported by the state agriculture department. We provided the technical know-how and other inputs," said Rajeev Ranjan Kumar, an agriculture department official who supervised the cultivation.

Apart from Sumant, four farmers in Darveshpura had bumper crops in 2012. Krishna Kumar produced 202qph (quintals per hectare) of paddy, Nitish Kumar 196qph, Vijay Kumar 192qph and Sanjay Kumar 190qph. "All those who used SRI had bumper yields," said Nitish. "Under traditional methods, the average yield is 55qph. With SRI, it has gone up to 80 to 85qph."

When SRI was introduced in Darveshpura in 2007, only 20 farmers agreed to adopt it. The number swelled to more than 10,000 in 2011, and paddy production in the state jumped from 4.6 million tonnes to 7.2 million tonnes, a feat which earned Bihar the Krishi Karman award.

Though the state agriculture department is crowing about the success in Darveshpura, sceptics in the scientific community are not convinced. "Hardly any farmer is following SRI accurately. There is wider spacing and use of younger seedlings at the time of transplanting. Our field visits and study did not reveal any advantages as claimed by the farmers," said Trilochan Mohapatra, director of Central Rice Research Institute in Cuttack, Odisha.

He even cast doubts on Sumant's claim to fame. "Our team found that the yield was less than 50 per cent of what was claimed and [Sumant] Kumar was not available. Our report has been submitted to the DAC [department of agriculture and cooperation at the Centre]," he said.

Achim Dobermann, deputy director-general for research at the International Rice Research Institute, too, questioned Sumant's claim. "The rice crop was planted in early July. In the rice-growing season, daily solar radiation is usually in the 15 to 20 MJ/m2 a day range and night temperature rarely drops below 20 degrees Celsius. I have no reason to believe this would have been any different in Darveshpura. Based on what we know... the maximum yield one could obtain at such a site is probably in the 10 to 12 tonnes per hectare range for an excellent hybrid such as grown by these farmers. To get anywhere near the yields reported, one would need to have a rice crop equipped with a different photosynthesis engine, such as the one in the so-called C4-photosynthesis crops (maize or sugarcane). We are working on that rice, but it doesn't exist yet," he wrote on his blog last year.

Dobermann, however, said the farmers in Darveshpura had grown excellent crops and even if the yield was 10 to 12 tonnes per hectare, it was a big achievement in a state where the average paddy yield was around two tonnes per hectare. "We should, however, move beyond unproductive discussions of record yield," he said.

Sumant's record yield proved to be a one-off, with production dropping to 135qph the following year. But he blames a bad year and the publicity he received for the result.

Even as the debate on his record continued, another farmer in Nalanda, Rakesh Kumar of Sohdih, made headlines last year. The state agriculture department said he had achieved a world record in potato yield, harvesting 1,088qph of organic potatoes.

A farmer since 1995, Rakesh is chairman of Organic Farmers Federation of Nalanda district. He switched to organic farming in 2009 and got his first record yield of 660qph of onion in 2012. "Thanks to organic farming, I save Rs.200 to Rs.300 per katha [1,368sq.ft]. The selling price for potato is Rs.6 per kilo. But I was offered a rate of Rs.18 per kilo by a firm for the next year," he said.

Surendra Prasad's is another success story. A farmer from Sarilchak in Nalanda, he set a national record for wheat production with a yield of 126qph. He, too, was working on a "demo plot", adapting SRI for wheat. "I treated the seeds with a mixture made from cow urine, lukewarm water and jaggery. I planted two seeds at distance of 8x8 inches square. Each plant bore 50 to 55 tillers," said Prasad.

Before he switched to SRI, he got around 80 kilos a katha. In 2012, when he set the national record, his yield was 1,280 kilos for seven kathas. "Rodents damaged my wheat [in 2013]. So I cultivated potatoes and got almost 600 kilos a katha," he said.

"There is a need to create more icons like these farmers and provide marketing linkages for their produce," said Palka Sahni, district magistrate of Nalanda. S.K. Jaipuriar, district agriculture officer in Nalanda, said Prasad had managed to save the cost involved in nitrogen input as he used vermi-compost, which also saved him an irrigation cycle as well as advanced the harvest by 15 days.

Biswanath Sinha, senior programme officer of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, which funds SRI cultivation in 10 states, said the technique can go a long way in providing food security. "Small and marginal farmers get six to seven months of food security from their farming activity. The objective of our programme is to ensure food security for the farmers for the remaining four to five months. We have covered 1.69 lakh farmers under our programme," he said.

Two evaluations carried out by Sir Dorabji Trust have shown 47 per cent increase in yield. Also, most of the farmers have continued with SRI even after the trust ended its support. "We work with farmers for three years. After that, they have to manage it on their own. Most of them have continued," he said.

Sinha was part of a small working subgroup that looked into 'upscaling innovations in agriculture technologies' for the 12th Five-Year Plan. "We have recommended use of SRI for 10 million hectares of paddy, around 20 per cent of our total rice cultivation," he said. "SRI can be used in other crops like wheat, mustard, finger millet and in vegetables like brinjal, tomato and chilli. In fact, we are helping 15,000 wheat farmers to adopt the technique."

Reaping profits

The system of rice intensification is an organic technique for increasing the yield of paddy. It was developed in Madagascar in 1983 by Henri de Laulanié, a French Jesuit. Thanks to Norman Uphoff, director of International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development at Cornell University, New York, SRI spread across the globe in the 1990s.

There are four main SRI principles: early and healthy transplant; reduced plant density; improved, organic soil conditions; and reduced and controlled water application.

1. Seedlings are transplanted when they are eight to twelve days old

2. The roots are carefully protected to minimise 'transplanting shock'

3. To avoid root competition and to encourage faster growth, seedlings are planted 25cm apart in a square grid pattern

4. Soil is enriched with organic matter. Some farmers use urea to achieve balanced fertilisation

5. Ten days after transplanting, a rotary hoe is used every seven to ten days. It keeps weeds under control, provides superficial tillage, aerates soil, prunes roots of the crop and removes water patches in the field.

The Week, 6 January, 2014, http://week.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMOnline.dll/portal
/ep/theWeekContent.do?programId=1073755754&contentId=1
5873238


The Week, 6 January, 2014, http://week.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMOnline.dll/portal/ep/theWeekContent.do?programId=1073755754&contentId=15873238


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