System of Rice Intensification (SRI)

♤ System of Rice Intensification (SRI) emerged in the 1980’s as a synthesis of locally advantageous rice production practices encountered in Madagascar by Fr Henri de Laulanie

♤ SRI is a combination of several practices those include changes in nursery management, time of transplanting, water and weed management. It emphasizes altering of certain agronomic practices of the conventional way of rice cultivation. All these new practices are together known as System of Rice Intensification (SRI).

♤ Principle - ‘More with Less’

♤ SRI is not a fixed package of technical specifications, but a system of production with four main components, viz., soil fertility management, planting method, weed control and water (irrigation) management. Rice yield increased with less water and with reduction in chemical inputs.

Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative (SSI)

♤ Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative (SSI) is an innovative set of agronomic practices that involves using less seeds, raising seeds in a nursery, and following new planting methods, with wider seed spacing, and better water and nutrient management to increase the cane yields significantly.

♤ SSI methods can increase sugarcane yields by at least 20% with 30% less water and a 25% reduction in chemical inputs.

♤ The SSI method of sugarcane cultivation was evolved from the principles of ‘More with Less’ followed in SRI (System of Rice Intensification) and introduced in India by the WWF-ICRISAT collaborative project in 2009.

PART - V