Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Intensification (SRI):
Opportunity for Food Security
and Water Saving in N. Ghana?
NARMSAP III Conference
Tamale, Ghana
December 16-19, 2002
Norman Uphoff,
Cornell International Institute for
Food, Agriculture and Development
More tillers and more than 400 grains per panicle
SRI is giving remarkable
and promising results
though still “a work in progress”
• SRI appears ‘too good to be true’
-- the agronomists’ equivalent of the
economists’ $100 bill on the sidewalk
• But there is increasing evidence that
this system is ‘for real’
• SRI is being used successfully by
– a growing number of farmers in
– a growing number of countries (16)
including Sierra Leone and The Gambia
SRI IS A METHODOLOGY
rather than a “TECHNOLOGY”
-- not a fixed set of techniques
Different paradigm for growing rice
that can be explained from the literature
500
W
S
400
Oxygenation ability ofα-NA
300
(ug/h.gDW)
200
100
0
N-n n-2 Heading Maturity
Development stage
Importance of Root Growth
• Supports more vigorous tiller growth and
then more grain filling
• Makes rice plants better able to
withstand effects of drought and disease
• Root growth and performance is result of
both chemical nutrient and physical
factors, but also of microbiological
processes in the soil
Paths for Increased Grain Yield in
Relation to N Uptake, using QUEFTS
Analytical Model (Barison, 2002)
N Internal Efficiency
12000
10000
G rain yie ld (kg /h a)
N u p take (kg /h a)
The contributions of
soil microbial activity need to
be taken more seriously
“The microbial flora causes a large
number of biochemical changes in
the soil that largely determine the
fertility of the soil.” (DeDatta,
1981, p. 60, emphasis added)
SRI Raises More Questions
than It Gives ANSWERS
• This is a PRACTICE-LED innovation
• Scientists have a challenge/opportunity
to develop and “retrofit” explanations
• By raising factor productivities and by
reducing the need for irrigation water
and agrochemicals, SRI should benefit
particularly poor households and the
environment -- explore opportunities
• Water saving is becoming more crucial
THANK YOU
More information is available
on the SRI WEB PAGE:
http://ciifad.cornell.edu/sri/
including Sanya conference proceedings
E-MAIL ADDRESSES:
ciifad@cornell.edu
tefysaina@simicro.mg
ntu1@cornell.edu