THE SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION: MEMOIRES OF AN INNOVATION

wondered around the world a bit. In the early 70’s that I spent some time in North Carolina, a state in the southern US that is very close to the climate that we have in Punjab Pakistan, and we grow some similar crops. My stay in North Carolina exposed me to industrial agriculture as it was being followed in the US and the rest of the more developed countries.

 

I started my farming with barren land, about 140 hectares, that was purchased in 1958 at a place 120 miles from my home city of Lahore. Our land and the surrounding area were unproductive; canal water for irrigation was provided during the summertime only. So, most of the crops grown in the area were summer crops like rice, sorghum, and millet. The staple diet of people was bread made from sorghum or millet and boiled salted rice. In winter, there was no irrigation system, so farmers would plant wheat on just a small area that they could irrigate by a bullock-drawn well. Bread made from wheat was given only to very special guests or to sick elderly people who couldn’t digest bread made from sorghum or millet flour. People lived mostly in houses made out of mud and covered by straw roofs. The location of the land that we purchased was very good, however, right on a road leading to major towns.

I had little previous experience of farming, gained through visits to my grandfather in the late 50’s and early 60’s. In those days, a tractor was something extraordinary, but I was able to learn to drive one in my sixth grade, a great thrill. The challenge that was imposed on me when I took up farming was much bigger than my skillset and experience. The land was uneven, an old river basin, covered with wild growth. During my travels in developed countries, I was well-exposed to farming standards and the practices being followed.

My first task was to level the land and to make fields larger to ease mechanical operations. The farm was thus redesigned after a proper topography survey, and I was the first farmer in the province to practice precision leveling of fields. At the time, no machinery was available except for 50 HP tractors, a spring-tine cultivator, and a small trailer. Most of the machinery available was that used in developed countries, designed for more powerful tractors which were not suitable for our conditions. This difficulty got me started on modifying farm machines to make them suitable to our conditions. We started with soil scraper, fine levelers, disc plough, disc harrow, planters, weeders, spraying, and harvesting machines.

The industrial agriculture that we started in 1973 changed the landscape of the whole area and financially liberated farmers of every scale. Because of this showcase, farmers in surrounding areas were able to learn modern practices, and agriculture in the neighboring districts is the richest in Pakistan.

After decades of input-intensive farming, it could be observed that soil systems in the flood- irrigated areas of Pakistan, particularly in Punjab, are badly deteriorating caused by high salinity. Soils’ water absorption, retention and provisioning capacity had declined. Crops which used to demand irrigation only once every 3 to 4 weeks now need water after less than 10 days. Input-intensive farming that started with the Green Revolution in 1960s promoted repeated plowing to make the soil powdery, but it also became more susceptible to wind, water erosion and lower water absorption. Further, repeated use of tractor with spring-tine cultivator which has smearing action caused hardpan, as such water absorption roots development was only in top six/seven inch of layer. To exploit the full potential of improved seed varieties, it recommended high fertilizer dosing, numerous pesticide spraying, and excessive irrigations. By the middle of 1980s, yields increases stagnated. At this time, hybrid corn and improved cotton varieties (BT & others) were introduced. This gave a boost to crop yields and therefore intensive input practices continued. But within a few years, crop yield increases once again went into stagnation and declined. We started searching for causes and remedies.

While on visit to Brazil and passing through the Amazon, the question arose in my mind: how come these forests are so lush green and have been so for millions of years without any deficiency? I began to think that maybe what we have been doing in Punjab is wrong. One could see that there was abundant vegetation in upland areas where the soil is not inundated. Soon after rain, any excess water flows into the streams and rivers. There is no disturbance of soil, and the soil is covered with organic mulch. Many plant species grow and thrive together. Our industrial agriculture was the opposite to all this. In Pakistan and elsewhere we were going against the natural algorithm for soil fertility and growth of vegetation.

I began to feel that our survival rests on being attuned to the natural processes of vegetation. But how can we do that? There were many hurdles. Seeds need pulverized soil to attain moisture for their germination; this is why plowing was felt necessary, to make firm contact between the soil and seeds. Our practice of flood irrigation that inundates flat land is also against nature. Pressurized-flow irrigation systems, which are costly to install and maintain, are not necessary in our flatland conditions. So how can we best supply water to plants? A next question was: how will we manage weeds? With natural vegetation, the soil is covered by thick organic mulch, and the ground is under shade of abundant biodiversity. Our agricultural practice favors concentrated monoculture so that crops are easy to harvest and replant.

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In order to find answers and solutions for these problems, I started searching on the internet and came across SRI on the website maintained at Cornell University. SRI provided many insights and a realization of the fact that during transplantation, plants should not undergo trauma; root-hairs should not be broken; early transplanting can improve tillering; plant spacing is important to optimize, not minimize; the application of compost improves organic matter in the soil for better water absorption and retention. All around me, farmers were not practicing what SRI was proposing.

Rice was not a crop being grown on our farm, but I decided to plant rice using SRI fundamentals. There were many challenges to be dealt with. Soil and plants should not be kept inundated. So, we made raised beds with a specially-designed machine so that water could flow along the channels between the beds. Lateral water flow into and under the raised beds provided the moisture needed for plant growth. The field on which this first SRI trial was conducted was 45 acres (17.8 ha), much more than a typical ‘test plot.’

Rice plants should be transplanted within 10 to 15 days after germination, according to SRI experience. Normally in Punjab, rice seedlings are transplanted into muddy soil, with standing water on it. So, how could we transplant young seedlings on dry raised beds with the temperature over 50°C (122°F)? The roots of seedlings would dry out within a matter of minutes. To overcome this challenge, we developed a transplanting machine that could drive up and down the long raised beds making small holes spaced 22.5 cm apart between plants and between rows. The holes were 5 cm deep, and 7 cm across, and after each hole was punched in the soil it was filled with water (110 ml, or 3.7 fl. oz.). Labourers riding on the machine dropped a young 10-day seedling into each hole as the machine passed over the beds. The water put in the holes enabled the seedlings to survive in the heat until the beds could be flooded after transplanting was completed (in about 2 hours). This innovation in mechanical transplanting was a success as the young plants restarted their growth without their experiencing trauma.