Dear Andreas,
Very good reporting. The second year/this year (adoption area growing) will tell whether farmers are convinced.
Were farmer(s) using all their own inputs?
The lack of inputs/compost/weeding would be limiting in any situation.
Considering the low inputs I suppose the yields are quite good.
I would be interested to hear if farmer(s) putting more inputs into their normal fields/what the yields were that farmers were getting in nearby fields. I.E. is this a case where farmers were scared to put normal inputs in as they expected the worst?

Would still like to hear from others how their last year SRI went and what they are planning for this year.
ATA?? NARC?? IAAS? Cornell/CARE?? ICIMOD???

Cheers, Scott

At 04:07 PM 5/10/2004 +0545, you wrote:

Dear SRI-Group Members,

An on-farm trial with the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) was conducted in the 2003 monsoon season in Taruwa village, Bardiya District, Mid-West Nepal with the technical cooperation of two NGOs, i.e.  'Samudahik Bikash Saastha, Gulariya' and 'SAGOAL, Nepalgunj'.

The trial was conducted on one farmer's field, which was divided into two plots:

Plot 1 (SRI I)
Area: 0.058 ha
Plot 2 (SRI II)
Areas: 0.0542 ha

Nursery:
Pre-soaked (24 hs) seeds were sown on 12 June 2003 in dry-nursery. The variety was PL84.

Transplanting:
SRI I on day 15 with planting distance of 30 cm, single plant per hill
SRI II on day 17 with planting distance of 15-20 cm, 1-3 plants per hill

Tillering:
SRI I: from 5-40 (average 18 productive tillers)
SRI II: from 3-31 (average 16 productive tillers)

Fertilizer:
no compost application, but part of the plot was used to grow vegetables which received compost during the winter.
SRI I: urea top dressing one time
SRI II: urea top dressing two times

Weeding:
only pulling out weeds, digging was not possible because fields were flooded due to no drainage facility.

Yields:
SRI I: total yield 252 kg = 4.35 t/ha
SRI II: total yield 264 kg = 4.87 t/ha
Nepal national average = 2.5 t/ha

The following table compares results with other trials conducted in Nepal:



OBSERVATIONS:

• SRI II performed slightly better than SRI I
• Water control was impossible. Plots were flooded from around day 30.
• That resulted in less tillering and poor root development.
• Due to these reasons SRI II with higher planting density performed better.
• Still, the result is quite good without the use of inputs.

IDEAS FOR IMPROVEMENTS:

• Use of compost and good land preparation.
• Growing Dhaicha as GM beforehand.
• Early sowing of a longer duration variety.
• Transplanting between day 8-10.
• Drain field before transplanting to get thicker mud, which makes it easier to mark grid for planting distances.
• Experiment with different planting distances.
• Mechanical weeding for soil aeration.
• Better water management.

INFORMATION MEETING ON SRI
On 26 April 2004 we organised an information meeting for interested NGOs and farmers in Gulariya, Bardiya. There was an attendance of 25 persons, many of them were farmers, which the "Samudahik Bikash Saastha" is working with, but also representatives of NGOs like: SIMI Nepal, Caritas, and Rural Reconstruction Nepal.

A presentation was given about SRI and the experience and results gained from the trial in Taruwa shared with the audience.

I uploaded the presentation to my website which can be viewd at the URL:

http://www.beeandy.de/sri/sri.html

After the presentation, Prem Naryan B.K., the farmer from Taruwa who tried SRI shared enthusiastically about his experience. He recalled one lady saying to him, when she saw the transplanted seedlings: "You must be a fool to plant rice like that. You will eat no single grain from this field!" A few weeks later, that same lady was surprised to see how well the plants had developed. She said:"I said that you are a fool, but now you proved I am the fool when I see that nice field!".

Prem emphasised that he did not understand much about this new system when he planted according to SRI principles. A lot of mistakes were done, but these helped him to learn for the coming season, and that he would know much better now how things should be done.

He said he was amazed by the tillering of the rice plants, and how heavy the filled panicles were compared to rice grown according to local practise.

Prem is so keen about SRI, that he plans to plant all his fields in the next season according to SRI principles. He was also called by farmers in Kanchanpur District in Far-West Nepal to teach them about SRI.

Author:
Andreas Jenny
SAGOAL Nepalgunj (10 May 2004)

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            Mr. Andreas Jenny                                    
                Socio-Economic Development Officer                    
                SAGOAL - Tackling Poverty, Changing Lives 
                                                  
       mail:    P.O. Box 1230, Kathmandu, Nepal         
     office:    Deva Phulbari Chowk, Nepalgunj, Banke District
        fon:    081 523944 (shared)  fax:  +977 61 520430
      eMail:    mailto:ajenny@...
 web (priv):    http://www.beeandy.de/

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