Author: Lucy Fisher Title: The System of Rice Intensification (SRI): An eco-digital commons for knowledge sharing (poster) Presented at: The 2nd Agriculture and Climate Change Conference Venue: Melia Sitges, Sitges, Spain Date: March 26-28, 2017

1. The System of Rice Intensification (SRI): An Eco-Digital Commons for Knowledge Sharing
Lucy Fisher, SRI International Network and Resources Center (SRI-Rice)
International Programs, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University
SRI NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND GLOBAL NETWORKS
SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION GLOBAL RESEARCH NETWORK
India (57%)
Indonesia (24.54%)
Philippines (11.04%)
Latin America (4.91%)
Nepal (1.23 %)
The System of Rice Intensification (SRI), which originated in Madagascar in
the 1980s, is an agro-ecological and knowledge-based methodology for
increasing the productivity of rice by changing the management of plants,
soil, water and nutrients while reducing dependency on external inputs. As
a climate-smart methodology that uses less water, seed, and agrochemicals,
SRI also helps farmers adapt to as well as mitigate climate change.
SRI EQUIPMENT INNOVATORS EXCHANGE (FACEOOK)
SRI NATIONAL AND REGIONAL DISCUSSION GROUPS
Over the last fifteen years, national SRI networks evolved in more twelve of the nearly
60 countries where SRI has countries, and regional networks began operating in Latin
America and West Africa. The national SRI networks are free, voluntary, vertically-
integrated entities that developed through farmers, practitioners, and in some cases
academics, grouping together to exchange experiences. Some of the networks are
sponsored by non-governmental organizations, while others are hosted by government
agencies or academic institutions. While they wax and wane with time, they rarely
disappear since most were not created by or tied to specific transient projects.
By 2016, the two regional networks transformed into Facebook-only discussion groups
without continuing institutional management. The Madagascar SRI network ceased
operations when the group operating it disbanded, leaving all of the national SRI
networks in Asia (see table below). While all of the networks are currently voluntary
and have very limited operating funds, they remain committed to their missions of
providing SRI information, advocacy and training to interested projects and farmers.
Global online networks for SRI equipment developers (right) emerged in 2012 and the
SRI Research Network (left) in 2016 after four years of planning. The two global
networks, which are free to join, are sponsored by SRI-Rice at Cornell University.
The recently redesigned SRI Research Network, which now includes a Zotero-
based platform maintained by SRI-Rice at Cornell University, helps SRI
researchers worldwide share results, access resources, find educational
opportunities, and keep up on the latest SRI research findings and priorities.
In addition to using the Zotero forum to find colleagues and vet research
designs, members can use the searchable research database and of over 1,000
research items, including journal articles, theses, monographs, and book
chapters. The ability for members to access full text research articles is
especially valuable in the Global South where libraries may have limited
holdings. Membership is free-of-charge.
[www.zotero.org/groups/system_of_rice_intensification_sri_research_network].
DISCUSSION GROUP ACTORS AND CONNECTIONS
The SRI Equipment Innovators’ Exchange is a Facebook-based
forum for those who are involved in the design and adaption of
equipment to share their ideas and get input on improving their
weeders, transplanters, markers and other manual and
motorized equipment used with System of Rice Intensification
methods.
Members of the SRI Equipment Innovators’ Exchange have
joined together in side events at the SE Asia Regional SRI
conference (2015) in Malaysia, met up at the Agritechnica (2016)
in Germany and come together for a SRI Equipment Workshop
(2014) in at the Asian Institute for technology in Thailand.
THE SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION
The network analysis shows the actual and potential
importance of some members in sharing information within
some of the national and regional SRI discussion
communities as of 2014.
While there is limited interaction between online SRI
discussion communities (due largely to language
differences and the local nature of much of the traffic), there
is a good opportunity to share some experiences and
resources that could be beneficial to all. Linking the
primary players (large dots) in each network to share
information and resources between networks could have a
significant impact.
GLOBAL Founded Based at Formal? Online?
SRI Research
Network
2016 Cornell University No Zotero/web
SRI Equipment
Forum
2012 Cornell University No Facebook
NATIONAL
Bangladesh 2006 NGO ? No
Cambodia 2004 1) Govt. (MAFF) [on hold]
2) Farmer SRI network
Yes
No
No
No
India(2) - National
SRI Consortium
2007 Peoples Science Institute
(NGO)
No Google Group
Indonesia (Ina-SRI) 2008 Institut Pertanian Bogor No Yahoo Group
Japan (J-SRI) 2007 University of Tokyo Yes Website
Malaysia (SRI-Mas) 2011 Univ. Kebangsaan
Malaysia
Yes Website/
facebook
Nepal (SRI-Nepal) 2002/2015 Virtual No Facebook/twitt
er
Philippines 2002 NGO (Virtual) ? Yahoo Group
Sri Lanka 2008/2015 Rajarata University Yes No
Taiwan (CA-SRI) 2016 Business (Caremed, Inc.) Yes Website
Vietnam (SRI-Viet) 2015 Thai Nguyen University
(Collective of 10 NGOs )
Yes No
SRI spread from Madagascar to nearly
60 countries throughout Asia, Africa
and the Americas in less than 20 years.
Over 10 million farmers are estimated
to be benefiting from adopting and
adapting SRI (http://sririce.org).
SRI EQUIPMENT NETWORKING
SRI is an eco-digital commons –an international network of thousands of farmers and
other stakeholders practicing or supporting a form of “open-source agronomy” for rice
cultivation. It has been cited as an example of how open-source collaborations, when
applied to agricultural challenges, “can yield practical, ecologically benign answers that
often do not occur to commercial vendors and state authorities – perhaps because SRI is
a commons-based system that is not profit-driven or hierarchically governed.” SRI also
provides a good example of agricultural crowdsourcing. [1]
In addition to knowledge sharing between farmers and through NGOs and national
and regional SRI networks, SRI-Rice at Cornell University provides farmers,
practitioners, researchers and other SRI stakeholders with a global online platform
(www.sririce.org) from which they can share project progress, extension material,
equipment innovations, research, and other materials on an international scale.
While SRI methods must be locally adapted, they are easily understood and produce
yields 20% to 50% higher than conventional rice production. The combined changes in
crop management result in plant phenotypes that not only give greater crop yield, but
have more resilience to stresses. Impressively, this is achieved by using less seed, water
and fewer (if any) chemical inputs. [2]
SRI AS AN “ECO-DIGITAL COMMONS”
2nd Agriculture and Climate Change Conference – Meliá Sitges, Sitges, Spain – 26-28 March, 2017
P1.104
REFERENCES:
[1] Bollier, David. 2016. New forms of network-based
governance. News and Perspective on the Commons website.
[2] Styger, E. and N. Uphoff. 2016. The System of Rice
Intensification (SRI): Revisiting agronomy for a changing
climate. Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture Practice
Brief
[3] Uphoff, Norman, and Frank B. Dazzo. 2016. Making
rice production more environmentally-friendly.
Environments 3(2): 12.