A higher yield with no chemicals and less water

Anura Maitipe

The most acute problem faced by farmers is lack of water for irrigation especially for paddy cultivation. A recent research conducted by the Finance Ministry jointly with the Irrigation Department revealed that farmers use 330,000 liters of water to produce a kilo of rice. The average rice consumption of an individual in Sri Lanka is about 110 kilos per annum.

According to these statistics a farmer needs 330,000 liters of water to produce 110 kilos of rice to meet an annual requirement of rice per person. It was also revealed that farmers waste more water than they needed for cultivation and on the other hand the yield is very low.

The Reawakening Project has introduced the SRI System (System of Rice Intensifications) to farmers in the Northern and Eastern provinces as well as in Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Moneragala and Puttalam districts. It has proved that the SRI cultivation is the best alternative to overcome the shortage of water for paddy cultivation.

Under the SRI System issue of only about 800 liters of water is needed to produce a kilo of rice. Farmers can produce the same quantity of rice with only 1/3 of water that they use at present.

Under the SRI System it is not necessary to use artificial fertilizer or chemicals, instead farmers can use organic manure and locally made chemicals for paddy cultivation with the least quantity of water. This is not only a nature-friendly method of paddy cultivation but also produces chemical free food for people.

Many countries in Asia such as China, India, Madagascar, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have already adopted this method and it has proved to be very successful and farmers in Sri Lanka are also following the same system now with the help of Re-awakening Project in different parts of the country. These are the comments made by farmers during our recent visits to these areas.

S. Rasaratnam in Mannar said “I have been cultivating paddy for so many years and I attended a training program conducted by the Re-awakening Project at Bathalegoda on SRI cultivation. I realized the difference between SRI paddy cultivation and the normal paddy cultivation.

In this season, I cultivated about half an acre of paddy by following the SRI System and it was very successful. In the next season, I will cultivate two acres because it is a very profitable way.

At the beginning, when I followed this method farmers in our village laughed at me but now they have realized the importance of the SRI cultivation method and they too want to follow the same method in the next season.

Under the SRI System, we can cultivate with minimum water and this system is most appropriate for our district because we don’t have huge water tanks and we grow paddy with limited water facilities. We were spending a large sum of money earlier on artificial fertilizer and chemicals but under the SRI System we are using only organic manure and locally made pesticides. Therefore, now paddy cultivation is more profitable.

Gilbert Lambert who followed the SRI system said “I participated in a training program conducted by the Re-awakening Project at Bathalegoda and there I learned about the system of SRI paddy cultivation. I followed the same method and cultivated one acre in the 2008 maha season. It was very successful and I obtained 283 bushels per acre. Under the normal paddy cultivation, the maximum yield we get about 120 bushels of paddy per acre.

This is a very cost-effective method. In normal way, we use to sow two bushels of paddy per acre but under the SRI System we need only four kilos of paddy for an acre. In this method we used only organic manure and locally made pesticides and did not use chemicals and artificial fertilizer. Under the SRI System, we can obtain a maximum yield with minimum water.

T.M. Samaraweera, A farmer from Anuradhapura said “I learned about the SRI cultivation and followed this method. I cultivated one acre and it was very successful. Most farmers in this area are interested in using the SRI cultivation method. Now I am conducting training program for these farmers and they are ready to follow the SRI paddy cultivation in the maha 2009.

Project Director of the Re-awakening Project, P.H Sugathadasa said: “we have introduced this system in the Northern and Eastern provinces as well as in Mannar, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Moneragala districts.

Our sole aim is to keep farmers ready to face scarcity of water within the next few decades by increasing paddy production at least by four folds. Other objective is harmonization of animal husbandry with agricultural crops to create a nature friendly agricultural system in the country where farmers can produce more with a minimum cost.