ROLE OF SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION (SRI) IN

FOOD SECURITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

Dr.P.Renganathan1
Shri. B.Ramesh Babu2

Introduction
Rice cultivation provides livelihood for more than two billion people and rice feeds more than
fifty percent of the world's population. The area under rice cultivation in India is 44 million
hectares and production is 96.43 million tonnes (2007-08). The area under rice accounts for 34%
of India's food crop area and 42% of its cereal crop areas. The introduction of high yielding
varieties, fertilisers, pesticides and irrigation has improved rice yields significantly and expanded
the area under rice cultivation. However, in the last 20 years, yields and the area under rice
cultivation have stagnated. As there is not much scope to increase the area under rice cultivation,
the additional production has to come from less land, less water and less human labour i.e., more
by improving the productivity and efficiency of production.

SRI and Food Security

The answer to the food security of the world, especially in third world countries, is to produce
more from less land with a system of crop intensification. For increasing rice productivity,
Government of India has launched special programmes like Special Rice Production Programme
(SRPP) and the Integrated Programme for Rice Development (IPRD). The Mini Mission II on
Technology Mission on Rice is the latest programme as part of the National Food Security
Mission that envisages to increase the production of rice by 10 million tonnes by the end of the
Eleventh Plan (2011-12). System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is one of the interventions
identified for increasing productivity in the Mission programme. SRI is a package of agronomic
approaches which together exploit genetic potential of rice plants, create a better environment,
enhance soil health and reduce inputs. The results of SRI from many countries have shown an
increase of 30-70% in rice yields while using less water and lowering production costs. At the
present rate of growth of population in India, we have to produce 130 million tonnes of rice by
2030 from the present level of 96.43 million tonnes (2007-08). To cater to this demand only
option is to increase rice productivity by adopting techniques like SRI. Adoption of SRI in 20
million hectares result in additional rice production of 44 million tonnes, which in turn can meet
the estimated future demand for rice.
SRI and Sustainability
About 70-80% of global freshwater withdrawals are for the agricultural sector, particularly
irrigation and rice accounts for about 85% of this. In the most intensively cropped area under rice
like Punjab where ground water is often used for irrigation, water table has been falling at the
alarming rate of 1 metre per year or more. According to a World Bank study, India's demand for
water will outstrip supply by the year 2020. Adopting SRI will save water upto 25%.

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1
Chief General Manager, 2 Assistant General Manager, Technical Services Department,
NABARD H.O, Mumbai
The water thus saved can be used for bringing additional area under irrigation. SRI, not only
reduces the use of irrigation water, but also increases yields significantly and enhances the
livelihoods of rice farmers. In areas where the source of irrigation is ground water, adoption of
SRI will reduce ground water exploitation. SRI also helps in energy security by reducing the
power consumption of farmers to irrigate land, as pumpsets will be operated for lesser hours to
pump ground water. Less use of pesticides result in less water and air pollution. Further,
practicing organic farming in SRI improves soil health by reducing fertiliser related
contamination. SRI also reduces Green House Gases emission. Thus if SRI is adopted for rice
cultivation, it can help in achieving not only food security but also for attaining sustainability.
Besides, there is scope for extending this technique successfully to other high water consuming
crops like Sugarcane and Wheat.

Strategy
The following strategy is suggested to promote SRI in the country so that it can play a useful role
in facilitating country to achieve food security.
(1) Expand SRI to larger areas – at least to the extent of 20% of total rice growing area.
(2) SRI may be popularised through active involvement of Voluntary Agencies, Government
Agencies, KVKs, Farmers' Clubs, Joint Liability Groups, Self Help Groups, etc.
(3) Incentives in the form of quality inputs, exposure visits, advise by technical experts may
be provided to encourage the farmers to adopt SRI.
(4) Capacity building programmes to the representatives of NGOs and farmers may be
provided on SRI technology.
(5) SRI is being popularised by State Government Agencies / Central Government
Agencies / Voluntary Agencies / Financial Institutions. The efforts of all the stakeholders
are to be synchronised and convergence of their programmes is required for better
outreach at farmer level.
(6) Even though SRI has been practiced for sometime, it is not so popular due to certain
problems like weeds, labour requirement, lack of standard package of practices, etc.
Hence it is necessary to focus on relevant research to make SRI technology more
popular.
(7) There are committed funds available with NABARD for promoting SRI. Stakeholders
should take advantage of these funds for popularising SRI in traditional rice belts and
also reaching SRI technology to non-traditional rice growing areas.

Conclusion
SRI is the need of the hour especially in rice growing areas where there is need to utilize the
available water for irrigating more areas and at the same time increasing production. In spreading
this technique all the stakeholders have to come together and cooperate in the interest of our
Nation achieving food security. Systematic research, location specific adoptation,
demonstrations, large scale extension and skill upgradation of farmers are needed to spread SRI
in major rice growing areas.