The System of Rice Intensification (SRI)

  • IASbaba
  • April 1, 2021
  • 0
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AGRICULTURE/ ECONOMY

Topic:

  • GS-3: Agriculture
  • GS-3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

The System of Rice Intensification (SRI)

About SRI 

  • The System of Rice Intensification involves cultivating rice with as much organic manure as possible, starting with young seedlings planted singly at wider spacing in a square pattern; and with intermittent irrigation that keeps the soil moist but not inundated, and frequent inter cultivation with weeder that actively aerates the soil.
  • SRI is not a standardised, fixed technological method. 
  • It is rather a set of ideas, a methodology for comprehensively managing and conserving resources by changing the way that land, seeds, water, nutrients, and human labour are used to increase productivity from a small but well-tended number of seeds.

SRI is initially labour intensive

  • Needs 50% more man-days for transplanting and weeding.
  • Mobilises labour to work for profit.
  • It offers an alternative to the resource poor, who put in their family labour.
  • Once the right skills are learnt and implemented, the labour costs will be lesser.

Benefits of SRI

  • Higher yields – Both grain and straw
  • Reduced duration (by 10 days)
  • Lesser chemical inputs
  • Less water requirement
  • Less chaffy grain %
  • Grain weight increased without change in grain size
  • Higher head rice recovery
  • Withstand cyclonic gales
  • Cold tolerance
  • Soil health improves through biological activity

Disadvantages

  • Higher labour costs in the initial years
  • Difficulties in acquiring the necessary skills
  • Not suitable when no irrigation source available

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