Climate Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

By modifying rice-growing methods, SRI reduces farmers‚ need for external inputs, eliciting more productive, robust phenotypes from given rice genotypes. Our project originated from finding that farmers in Madagascar who were getting rice yields of 2 tons/ha with conventional practices on poor soils could average 8 tons/ha with fewer seeds (much reduced plant density), with less water (no continuous flooding), and with little or no fertilizer (relying mostly on organic fertilization). This enabled them to produce more with less. 

Our efforts gained impetus when we learned that SRI‚ stopping flooding and reducing fertilizer-use significantly reduced the GHG emissions and global warming potential of rice production. SRI methods also made rice and other crops more resilient to stresses of climate-change.

These ideas are well-developed, but need dissemination and application. Net reductions in GHG emissions under SRI management vary widely with local conditions. A comprehensive life-cycle analysis in India by Oxford researchers calculated a 40% reduction in GWP per-hectare. 

Other Indian studies show GHG reductions of 28% and 38%; a Korean evaluation reported 70% reduction. A German evaluation in Vietnam documented 21% reduction in CH4 emissions with a small reduction, rather than expected increase, in N2O. 

Project Drawdown evaluated SRI as one of the most effective available means to reduce GWP. It projected that by 2050, attainable expansion of SRI could reduce emissions by 3.13 gigatons of CO2 equivalent. 

Because SRI reduces water requirements and increases profitability, it creates incentives to adopt SRI, which alternate-wetting-and-drying (AWD) lacks because AWD doesn‚ t raise yield.

Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

Mission Statement:

The mission of SRI-Rice -- consistent with Cornell University‚ land-grant mission -- is:

(a) to advance the state of knowledge about the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) and its derived System of Crop Intensification (SCI) improvements for wheat, finger millet, sugarcane, tef, legumes and other crops, by encouraging, assisting and synthesizing scientific research, and 

(b) to make such knowledge available through partners to as many farmers around the world as possible, to raise the productivity of their land, labor, water and other resources devoted to food production in environmentally-benign ways. 

The most direct beneficiaries of SRI practice are farmers and their families, but consumers also benefit from healthier food supply. 

The natural environment is a prime beneficiary of SRI because its methods reduce agricultural demand for water, which competes with other human needs and with natural ecosystems. 

SRI improves soil health and ecosystem services and reduces net greenhouse gas emissions from flooded rice paddies by 20-40% per hectare -- and by a higher percentage per kg of rice produced because SRI methods increase yields, usually by 50-100%. 

SRI-Rice is committed to making such knowledge freely available as widely as possible for the sake of farmers, consumers and the environment, operating in an open-access, non-proprietary mode. 

Being knowledge-based, SRI-Rice does not advocate the adoption of SRI. Rather it promotes the testing, evaluation, demonstration, and improvement of SRI ideas and methods. 

Conditions in the 21st century are changing so we need to advance agricultural technology beyond what succeeded in the 20th century.

Link: Facebook:

Main website: http://sririce.org Facebook pages 1) SRI-Rice: https://www.facebook.com/SRIRice/ 2) SICA (Spanish): https://www.facebook.com/Sica AmericaLatina/ 3) SRI Spanish group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ 1233696870107001/ 4) SRI Equipment Exchange https://www.facebook.com/ groups/http://SRI.innovators/ 5) SRI West Africa group: https://www.facebook.com/ groups/sriwestafrica/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/SRIRice YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/user/sricornell/ Slideshare (PowerPoints): 484 slide and poster presentations uploaded GooglePhotos ScoopIt Newsletter: https://www.scoop.it/t/system-of-rice-intensification-sri LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/3928316 Ning West Africa Network: http://sriwestafrica.ning.com/ SRI Zotero database (2,679 research items) There are separate databases for Africa, India, China, theses, journals, and non-journal research Cornell Conservation Agriculture website: http://soilhealth.org/ Conservation Agriculture Research Database on Zotero (2,342 research items)