The two-day symposium aimed to strengthen collaboration between organizations to promote the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) for food security and climate change. Participants included NGO partners, agriculture department officials, universities, and farmers. The symposium discussed SDTT's experience with SRI in India, government-NGO collaboration models, and challenges with data collection and farmer adoption rates. Field visits showed higher yields with SRI, and participants discussed improving demonstrations, training, and support to increase small farmer adoption of SRI.

1. Rural Communes SRI symposium Report
23rd & 24th May 2011
SYMPOSIUM AND BRAIN STORMING WORKSHOP ON
SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION (SRI) FOR
FOOD SECURITY & CLIMATE CHANGE
23 – 24 MAY 2011
Introduction
Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT), SRI NGO Partners and Rural Communes (RC) had planned a
Symposium and Brain Storming Workshop on System of Rice Intensification (SRI) for food
security & climate change, with active collaboration with the Department of Agriculture,
Government of Maharashtra and State Agriculture Universities of Maharashtra, NABARD Pune
to promote Rice Cultivation for benefitting small & marginal farmers for food security & climate
change.
Mr. Prabhakar Deshmukh – Agriculture Commissioner (State Agriculture Department) has taken
personal interest to organize the symposium & instructed his officials to take active participation
in program as well as to initiate some process for convergence of policies which were made for
Rice. The SRI program had active participation of
two SDTT-SRI nodal agencies from Maharashtra
i.e. Rural Communes from Konkan and Western
Ghats and Amhi Amchya Arogyasathi from
Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. All NGO
partners of Rural communes- Chaitanya,
Shramjivi Janata Sahayyak Mandal (SJSM),
Matrumandir, Parivartan, Jivhala, Gomukh,
Navjivan Gramin Vikas Sanstha and Yusuf Meher
Ali Centre (YMC), RC-Jawhar & Mokhada and
MPCC Trust, Pune were present for symposium
along with their materials. On behalf of Amhi
Amchya Arogyasathi one NGO partner- Gramin yuva pragatik mandal participated in the
Symposium.
For collaborating with Agriculture universities from Maharashtra we invited Vice Chancellors and
Director of Research from all universities. There was presence of researchers from Regional
Rice Research station, Karjat. From Agriculture department we invite JDA (Joint Director of
Agriculture) from Konkan, Pune and Nagpur division along with them SDAOs and TAOs from 13
rice growing districts of Maharashtra - Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Pune, Nashik,
Dhule, Kolhapur, Satara, Gadchiroli, Bhandara, Gondia, Chandrapur for this two days
Symposium and Brain Storming Workshop at RAMETI, Khopoli. Senior programme manager of
SDTT, Mumbai, SRI-Secretariat, Bhubaneshwar were present as SDTT-SRI representative.
From NABARD Mr. Narsimhan GM, Pune, DDM of Thane and Sindhudurg district attended the
symposium. Representative farmers from all organization were also invited for the symposium.
Press conference was organized by Rural Communes before symposium for spreading SRI
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2. Rural Communes SRI symposium Report
23rd & 24th May 2011
technique and for information about symposium through the Print media. The largest
Newspaper in Maharashtra on Agriculture ‘Agrowon’ carried a special feature on SRI on the
Symposium date (23rdMay 2011).
Demonstration models of SRI techniques & methods was put up by SDTT SRI NGO Partners
specially on Raised Bed Nursery, Mat Nursery, Single seedling Planting, Spacing, Different
types of Weeders & Markers, various traditional & improved varieties of rice seeds, posters.
Along with this Rice plant with around 50-55 tillers kept for exhibition.
• Objectives:-
o To strengthen the collaboration between NGOs, Agriculture Department,
Agriculture colleges/ universities, NABARD and farmers to upscale SRI.
o To create awareness among farmers and encourage them for cultivating SRI
method
o Experience Sharing of SRI experts who implemented the SRI in different
Districts, States of India
o Convergence of various state & central schemes related to Paddy cultivation.
Actual Program:
As per the schedule of SRI symposium Agriculture commissioner Mr. Prabhakar Deshmukh,
and JDAs from Konkan, Pune and Nagpur Division , NABARD’s DGM Mr. M.A. Narsimhan, Dr.
Sanjiv Phansalkar (Team leader SDTT), Bisawant Sinha, Tushar Das and Dr. Gode (Chairman
, Rural Communes) were the chief guests of the function. But due to urgent call of meeting by
Chief Minister of Maharashtra some Agriculture Dept. officials remained absent for the
symposium. Dr. Sanjiv Phanasalkar also could not attend the symposium due to official work.
The program has initiated with lighting of lamp by chief guest Mr. M.A. Narsimhan, Mr. Biswant
Sinha, Mr. Tushar Das. Other invited Guests, Resource Persons, SDTT Senior Officials,
Farmers, SRI NGO Partners, Media and others were presented .Research Directors of
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3. Rural Communes SRI symposium Report
23rd & 24th May 2011
Agriculture Universities were also unable to attend except Dr.L.G.Pawar (Agronomist) and Dr.
R.L.Kunkhekar (Rice breeder) from Agricultural Regional Research Centre, Karjat, Raigad.
First Session of symposium was started with SDTT’s Experience of promoting SRI in India by
Mr. B Sinha. He started with the background and silent features of project implementation of
SRI in different states of India. Along with above, he also mentioned the year wise data starting
from 2006 upto 2010. At the initial phase of SDTT –SRI programme works with 2 NGO partners
in 5 states, 14 district with 11,000 farmers. In 2010 it works in 11 states, 109 districts with 143
NGOs covering 81138 farmers all over India. He also told about system of crop intensification.
The second session started with the speech of Mr. Tushar Das on Govt - NGO collaboration in
India for SRI project. In his speech he mentioned major objective of SRI programme and about
SRI Secretariat. Then he spoke about government Initiative in Bihar with Pradan organization.
Bihar Govt declared 2011 year as SRI year and also take initiation in SWI (system of Wheat
Intensification). Orissa govt. is working with Non govt. organization for SRI on 80,000 Acres
area. Besides Orissa and Bihar other states like Uttarakhand, Tripura, Chattisgarh, Tamilnadu
Govt. were involved in SRI activities in collaboration with NGOs. By giving above examples Mr.
Tushar Das expect the collaboration of Go- NGO for spreading the SRI area in India.
After SDTT-SRI representatives, NABARD’s DGM Mr. Narsimhan came forward for sharing
their experience on SRI. He mainly focused on the upscaling of SRI and importance of SRI in
climate change situation. He suggested Mr. A.Y. Patil, DDM Thane for continuing the session on
NABARD’s schemes and funds for farmers.
At the end of first session representative from Nodal Agency (Rural Communes) Trupti Kadam
and Jayadev Bansode (Amhi Amchya Arogyasathi) summarized the last year’s experience on
SRI.
After completing the presentation all guest were given a memento as symbol of the program
Second session:
The Second session was started with Mr. Taro, Agriculture officer from Agriculture Department,
Pune on new initiatives in pest and disease surveillance and its management in paddy i.e. Crop
Pest Surveillance and Advisory project (CROPSAP). He gave his presentation by covering the
background of project, method of surveillance for economic threshold levels in selected crops
like cotton, soyabean and now in rice. He also stated the working and period of surveillance.
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4. Rural Communes SRI symposium Report
23rd & 24th May 2011
After this session Dr. Kunkhekar, Rice breeder- Regional Research Station, Karjat presented
Seed production techniques and high yielding varieties, hybrid varieties released by Dr.
Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli. He suggested farmers to produce their
own seeds. Farmers asked the characteristics of some varieties which are suitable for their
region.
Then Dr. L.G.Pawar , Agronomist , Regional Research Station, Karjat took charge of mike and
started his session on effect of organic manure on rice. He showed the comparison between
different organic manures by indicating contents of nutrients (N,P,K) in each manure . He
focused on the green manuring which will reduce
the growth of weed by using these crops as
intercrops. Some weeds like Ranmodi and Takala
can be used to increase organic matter in soil. He
also conducted session on practices in SRI by
comparing it with traditional practices through
experiments conducted at universities.
At the end of second session farmers from all
organization were honored with certificates for
following more principles of SRI and some of them
also shared their experiences about increase in
their yield by SRI method as compare to traditional
methods.
After hearing the farmer’s experiences officials of Agriculture Department and Agriculture
Universities asked questions to farmers about SRI techniques. The 2nd session was moderated
by Dr. Gode. He gave brief points of last session and announced about next day’s field visit at
Swali village.
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5. Rural Communes SRI symposium Report
23rd & 24th May 2011
24th May 2011:
Second Day of Symposium started with field visit. All the participants visited Mr. Bhagvan Patil’s
farm in Swali village. Bhagwan told practices followed by him while using SRI method of Rice
cultivation. Every participant went in the field and took observation by own and asked questions
to farmer about cost of cultivation and yield.
After field visit 2nd day’s session was started with
observations of all officials. The observations by
them were as follows:
• Farmers could not give proper answers
to their queries about yield.
For their observation Trupti Kadam has replied
that farmers are not trained for collecting the
data; whatever observation taken from their field
has been taken by resource persons & while this
process was going on farmers were also
present. But the next process where data verification & filling process took place farmers are not
aware about it. And all technical information cannot come from all farmers.
From above observations and by hearing farmer Dr. Gode suggested that:
• Before promoting any technology we have to implement demonstration properly into
field. So that it will help in determination of technology.
• Even though there is difference in farmer’s observation and scientist data, it can be
observed that SRI method of rice cultivation is better than traditional method.
Second Session:
This session started by presentation of Mr. Tushar Das on Management Information System
(MIS). In this session he explained following points:
a) Common MIS b) Sample study and C) Cost- benefit ratio
He introduced new software prepared by SRI secretariat for filling and analysis of MIS reports of
all NGO partners from all over India. He gave analysis of the all NGOs from Maharashtra by
indicating no. of farmers, no. of area covered. At the end of session questions arose by govt.
officials about the data which he has with him; basically they were asking about the methods &
techniques of data collection & verification process as well as process of analysis. Mr. Tushar
Das replied them how the data collected in various three kinds of format of MIS & also how this
data verified and analyzed at Secretariat level to them.
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6. Rural Communes SRI symposium Report
23rd & 24th May 2011
After presentation there was an open discussion on
following points:
• Are farmers dis-adopting SRI method after 1-2
years
• What percentage
• Factors responsible for farmer’s drop- out
• Suggestions for enhancing the adaptation rate
Reasons found out for above points were as
follows:
• In Konkan only 40% area is suitable for growing rice by traditional while 20%
area is suitable for growing by SRI method as land under cultivation is in
waterlogged condition.
• Seedlings were not available at proper time due to heavy rainfall
• Hired Laboures are not ready to transplant by this method
• Farmers expecting external inputs from organization and other sources
The data which was presented by Tushar Das interpreting that in Maharashtra SRI farmer’s
dropout rate is high but this interpretation is due to not including previous years farmers were in
the current years SRI farmers & data were not collected from their field by NGOs.
Suggestions for increasing adaptation rate are as follows:
• Preparation of raised beds of different duration seedlings
• Train SHGs/ groups from villages to transplant seedling by SRI method and link
them with those farmers are ready to adopt SRI method.
• Awareness of farmers about the Govt. Schemes
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7. Rural Communes SRI symposium Report
23rd & 24th May 2011
Farmers experience sharing & exposure visits to the SRI farmers will increase the awareness
among community. Also it has been seen that data collection of SRI Field has some lacking
because of which analysis of data is misleads but
with more focus training to data collector this
problem can be solved.
One more important point has been raised by
participants that if Agriculture Department & NGOs
jointly conduct some demonstrations on Farmers
fields & demonstrate the methods of collecting the
data at various stages, analyze the data at various
stages, analyze the data to generate for the yield
results etc.
After this discussion Smt. Vaishali Gavandi (MPCC
& Trust, Pune) briefed the whole discussion & she also highlighted the letter of Agriculture
Commissioner where he has appreciated the work on SRI done by Rural Communes & other
NGO partners in Maharashtra. In his letter he urged NGOs & Agriculture department to work in
collaboration through distributing responsibilities among them i.e. inputs should be provided
from Agriculture department & Awareness generation, training & capacity building work carried
out by NGOs. Thus there will be no duplication of the work & spread will be increase at field
level.
She also gave information about the new concept of Farmers Farm School which Rural
Communes is promoting with 10 other NGO partners with support of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. This
concept has been developed for Farmers where they learn about all improved crop technology
from Sowing to Harvesting in their own field.
Trupti Kadam
Sonal Dalvi
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