Presenter: Ram Bahadur Khadka
Title: New Directions for the System of Rice Intensification in Nepal: Mechanization and Biofertilizers
Date: December 9, 2016
Venue: Mann 102, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
COMPUTER 10: Lesson 7 - File Storage and Online Collaboration
1614 New Directions for the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in Nepal: Mechanization and Biofertilizers
1. Outline
Nepal : Overview
SRI in Nepal:
Historical perspectives
New directions in SRI
Mechanization options
in SRI
Problems
Ways forward
2. Nepal: Overview
Area: 14.7 M ha (147,181
km2) -- 93rd in the world
Population: 26.6 M (2011)
Pop. growth: 1.4% (2011)
Density: 199/km2 -- 62nd
Mountains: 3000-8,848 masl,
35% of area, 2% arable
Hills: 800-2,400 masl, 43% of
area, only 10% arable
Terai: 60-300 masl, 23% of
area, 50% arable
Seasons: Spring (March-May),
Summer (June-August), Autumn
(Sept.-Nov.), Winter ( Dec-Feb).
Rice seasons : Main (rainy), boro (winter) and early (spring)
3. 1999 • First SRI trial (NARC-Cornell University)
2001
• Trials on variety, spacing, water management (CIMMYT-
NWRP, Appropriate Tech. Asia(ATA)
2002 • FFS set up in the Sunsari-Morang Irrig Project, yield: 8 t/ha
• SRI-Nepal Discussion Group formed
2005
• SRI project won 2nd place in the World Bank’s Nepal
Development Marketplace competition
• National SRI workshop in Kathmandu (ICIMOD hosted)
2008
• SRI had started in more than 20 districts by GOs/NGOs
(reaching 2500 farmers)
• Success at 2500 m altitude in southern Humla (ATA)
2010
• EU-funded Food Facility project launched in 10 districts-
100s of SRI FFSs developed, trials and demon in FFSs
2012-16
• NARC started systematic research, GON has launched
mega rice project-SRI an important element
• SRI reached more than 50 districts (out of 75)
6. Performance of FAR
landraces in SRI
Landraces have 3-4 fold
higher price in market, due to
their premium quality
Well-adapted to conditions
Problems: low yield, high
disease, unresponsive with
fertilizer, lodging
Khadka, et. al. 2014
7. Scale value
0= no lodging,
5 =100 % lodging
1= no disease
9 - highest disease
LSD=0.92**LSD=0.62**
SRI: Biotic and Abiotic stresses
13. Integration of SRI in Seed System
As SRI increase the seed efficiency by more than 80%
(means 4-6 Kg seed is sufficient for 1 ha in SRI while it
required 50-60 Kg in conventional)
The seed flow is very slow from research to farmers field
(takes around 5-6 years after varietal recommendation)
due to scarcity of nucleus seed
Nucleus
Res. St. (1 yr)
Breeder
( Res. St.
1 yr)
Foundation
(Res. St./seed
producers)
Certified
(seed
producer/F
armers)
Fig: Seed flow System from Research to Farmer’s field
15. Crop Establishment
Planting in grid is always a challenge in SRI
Earlier, rope was used for marking Wooden rake was then used: not suitable
Drum seeder is promising Roller type marker Rice crank transplanter
is recent introduction
16. Development of mechanical
weeder for SRI in Nepal
Initially wooden ‘rakes’ with iron pins
were used as weeders for SRI (cost
as little as 25 cents)
Locally-fabricated rotary weeder was
developed by NARC
USHA weeder (India) was introduced for
SRI promotion in Nepal
17. Effect of different methods
of weeding for SRI
Methods of
weed control
Yield advantage
cf. herbicides
Rotary weeder (ha) 21%
Hand weeding (ha) 1.65%
Herbicides 0%
Methods of
weed control
Time saving cf.
hand weeding
Rotary weeder (ha) 73%
Hand weeding (ha) 0
Herbicides 92%
18. Problems
Monsoon-dependent rice farming is
the norm
Lack of assured sources of irrigation
water during crop establishment and
weeding
Lack of extra-early rice varieties for
spring-season rice farming
Low priority in research and extension
is given to SRI
Lack of sufficient technical know-how
to provide to farmers
Provision of simple weeding
machines/tools is needed
Organic matter levels in the soil are
decreasing
19. Way Forward
Demarcate most suitable areas
for SRI
Rigorous training is needed
Mechanization for crop
establishment and weeding
Focus on seed/seedling priming
with Trichoderma and effective
modes of application
Organic production of premium-
quality rice landraces with SRI
Increase soil organic matter --
green manuring, legume
incorporation, etc.
Document the role of SRI in
climate-change resiliency
20. Summary
1. Integration of SRI with drought tolerance rice varieties and
beneficial microbes could be successfully utilized to address
the emerging challenge of climate change in rice production
system
2. The productivity of high value rice landraces can be
significantly increased by SRI, which can have the great
contribution in reducing poverty in remote part of the
country
3. Ratooning in SRI can help to increase the cropping intensity
by enhancing area of spring season rice
4. Increase of soil organic matter is most essential in SRI
5. Large plot demonstrations of SRI with Trichoderma
integration, use of roller type markers and motorized SRI
weeder in rice super zones would be helpful to increase the
national rice productivity by acceleration of SRI adoption in
Rice contributes 23% to the country’s agricultural gross domestic product. It accounts for 52% of the total food grain production and about 46% of the agricultural area, and it employs 65.6% of the population. It also meets more than 50% of the total calories requirement of the Nepalese people.
32 % higher yield than conventional and 87% higher than dry DSR
74 % higher yield was achieved in SRI than conventional, while the yield increment of HR Basmati was 60% as compared to 59% in improved var. Khumal -4
The lodging and disease pest are considered to be the important constraints in local varieties, the SRI increase the tolerance to disease and lodging
Tilki dhan- long duration, fine, photo sensitive and locally most liked varieties in terai region, sensitive to lodging
Sukhadhan- Recently released under the effort of STRASA project of IRRI, drought tolerance, photo insensitive, short duration var.
We did come experimentation on how the newly released varieties perform in SRI. We can see all the new var have yield higher than 5 mt/ha. The synergistic effect of drought tolerance var with SRI can greatly helpful to reduce the impact of drought in rice…
Similarly, we tested some new varieties called green super rice, which are considered to be multi-stress( drought, low nutrient, diseases, weeds and pest) tolerance. We can see here the yield of one of the green super rice 08FAN-10 has more than 10 mt/ha
We know that the beneficial microbes have multiple benefits in crop production system. The Trichoderma is considered to be the most widely used micros which can rescue the plants from both biotic and abiotic stresses. We considered the effect of Trichoderma seedling treatments in different cultivation practices. We found 22% higher yield in seedling treatments with Trichoderma. While the highest yield was recorded when Trichoderma incorporated in organic SRI.
As SRI have better performance as well as better adapted by farmers in spring season as compared to main season, because of the three reasons, higher yield due to better solar energy harvesting, controlled irrigation and water saving. There is limited time to cultivate rice after spring season harvesting due to short monsoon. In this aspect, ratooning would be the better option. We started some work in ratooning trials in SRI. We are getting promising results by managing the stubble length. More than 60% yield could be retrieved from the previous season crop.
Justifiable after five years
Transplanting is considered to be the most challenging factor in SRI adoption due to difficulties in handling the small seedlings and transplanting in grid. We worked for several techniques to make transplanting easier in SRI. Farmers are adopting these as per the local suitability, soil type and water holding capacity of soil greatly influenced the line marker used.
The weed management is considered as one of the very crucial work in SRI. Due to ASD the higher weed population is expected in SRI compared to conventional. Higher yield from use of rotatory weeder has been evident in SRI.