SRI-2030: Can Rice Farmers Boost Yields While Cutting Costs and Climate Impact?
Around the world, people eat a lot of rice. It’s the culinary and nutrition backbone of many cultures, and the main crop for millions of farmers, contributing over 21% of global caloric intake. It’s also one of the most notoriously difficult to grow, one of the thirstiest, and one that negatively contributes to climate change. Indeed, its production presents significant environmental challenges, accounting for 11% of global methane emissions, 1.3% of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2)-equivalent emissions, and consuming approximately 40% of the world’s irrigation water. And its yields are consistently low, putting small-scale farmers in particular at economic risk. How can we fix this?
These two critical challenges – insufficient yields and a substantial climate impact – are individually addressed by various organizations. But the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), which SRI-2030 advocates, has been widely evidenced as a solution that holistically addresses both. The UK-based initiative SRI-2030 is dedicated to accelerating the adoption of the SRI approach, which has been researched for the last thirty years. SRI-2030 is increasingly focused on the African continent. In Africa, large yield gaps persist due to sub-optimal cultivation practices. At the same time, demand for rice across the continent is steadily rising, driven by rapid population growth and shifting dietary preferences as urbanization increases. The result is a gap filled in by expensive imports, which misses a crucial chance for local production, jobs, and economic growth.
SRI is based on agroecological practices that have a proven history of providing ecological, social, and economic benefits to farmers, families, consumers, and businesses. It follows four key principles (the early establishment of healthy plants; low plant density, i.e. wider spacing of plants; soil enrichment; and the sparing application of water) that address water, soil, and crop management. These principles can then be modified by farmers themselves to suit local conditions. According to SRI-2030, SRI has been shown to typically increase yields by 50% while simultaneously reducing emissions by 50%. In comparison to conventional practices, the initiative claims that SRI uses about 30% less irrigation water.
SRI-2030 works by combining top-down policy engagement with governments and mid-level interventions. They strengthen policy commitments and facilitate the implementation of existing policies, particularly by fostering synergies between disparate policy objectives, such as aligning Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under climate ministries with National Rice Development Strategies under agricultural ministries. SRI-2030 states that their most significant achievement to date is bringing together multiple rice producing countries and various actors within these rice producing countries through the creation of the “Sustainable Rice NDC Alliance.”
According to the initiative, the application of SRI is applicable across various geographical scales. However, given that 90% of rice farmers globally are smallholders, it is particularly noteworthy that SRI is most effective on small to medium sized plots of land. That makes it especially well-suited for the countries they are focused on across Africa.
Written by Sarah Souli
Images provided by SRI-2030
