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. As Father de Laulanié observed, SRI is an amalgamation of multiple beneficial practices.
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
- Reduced methane production
- Reduced electricity consumption
Disadvantages
- Higher labour costs in the initial years
- Difficulties in acquiring the necessary skills
- Not suitable when no irrigation source available
