2005: Highlight # 20

Can SRI deliver significantly higher rice yields and at the same time reduce input costs? Sinha and Talati present results from a new sample survey in West Bengal...

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Impact of System of Rice Intensification (SRI) on Rice Yields

Results of a New Sample Study in Purulia District, India

Shekhar Kumar Sinha and Jayesh Talati

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Maximizing output with a given set of inputs has continued to be a matter of great interest and a technology that gives increased output with comparatively lesser inputs certainly draws a lot of attention.

This paper examines the case of one such highly debatable technology, popularly known as System of Rice Intensification (SRI) which promises to give more rice yields with lesser inputs. The study shows that there is a significant increase in paddy yields with this technology. The highest yield is of the order of 15 tons/ha.

SRI also leads to reduced input costs resulting from less seed requirement, 2.87 kg per acre compared to 27.17 kg per acre in the conventional method. With SRI there is an increase of about 67 percent on net returns compared to the conventional method of paddy cultivation, suggesting that SRI is pro poor.

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