System of rice intensification - an overview

Rice is one of the principal cereals and is cultivated and consumed in most parts of the world. About 90% of the world’s total rice production is from Asia and the remaining from Africa and Latin America. The world population survey states that the total number of living humans is now greater than 7 billion and the average addition to population is currently estimated at around 80 million per year. It is hence necessary to develop various methods to increase the production of rice crop to satisfy the need of each and every people. One such method developed in early 1980’s was the system of rice intensification otherwise called as SRI method. SRI was developed in Madagascar and popularized by a French Jesuit priest named Henri de Laulanie’. It is an alteration of management practices to make better yielding phenotypes from the same genotype of rice plant. SRI mainly includes modified techniques of land preparation, transplantation of seedlings singly, ensuring wider spacing between seedlings, alternate wetting and drying of the field rather than continuous flooding of the field, use of organic matter or vermicompost, etc. SRI has since been very much improvised and is being used in different parts of the world, especially in countries like Indonesia, China, India, etc. SRI improves the productivity of land, labour and irrigation water and the economic inputs used in rice cultivation. Thus, the system of rice intensification helps to improve the yield with limited water usage and lesser quantity of seeds when compared to conventional methods of rice farming.