1. Strategic Options for Food Security:
System of Rice Intensification (SRI)
and Farmers’ Collective Action
C. M. Wijayaratna, with Norman Uphoff
Keynote Address - Regional Workshop of SRI-LMB
Project on Sustaining and Enhancing the Momentum
for Innovation and Learning around the System of Rice
intensification in the Lower Mekong River Basin
Countries
Hanoi, 24th April 2017
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2. Food security and small farmers
Food security is affected by several factors including the
production environment, policy coordination, and
international trade
Majority of farmers are small landholders with low
resource base. Social capital plays key role in food security
This keynote focuses on this element of development
strategy that has been acknowledged in SRI-LMB Project
documentation. It examines opportunities for farmers’
collective action (CA) as a core strategy for accelerating
the scaling-up of SRI and improving farmers’ livelihoods.
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3. Challenges for small farmers
 Limited arable land, plus competing uses and users for
constraining natural resources, most notably water
 Declining profits, mainly due to rising costs of production and
stagnating yields
 Emerging constraints such as climate change, younger
generation leaving agriculture and the rural economy, and
pressures of global market forces
 SRI -- high-yielding, water-saving and time-saving as well as
“climate-smart” -- can contribute significantly to enhancing
small farmer incomes, their living standards, and the overall
food security in the region. SPA-FS: 2015-2020 has included
SRI in the “Strategic Thrust” 3

4. Current status: Major events and activities
contributing to scaling-up of SRI
Demonstrated success: Probably the most powerful factor
Experiential modes of dissemination: informal farmer-to-
farmer exchanges that reinforce seeing-is-believing and learn-
by-doing, along with organized, formal experience-sharing
Piloting and local testing to demonstrate and build up farmers’
experience and confidence
Information, education and communication (IEC), including
electronic and print media
Government policy, extension services now more supportive:
SRI has emerged as a promising innovation, and government
programs are increasingly giving platforms for SRI scaling-up
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5. Spread of SRI use as of 2016
5
Darkest green indicates countries with official acceptance and
promotion of SRI; pale gray: demonstrated beneficial effects of SRI,
but promotion not yet significant. This is a dynamic situation as, for
example, the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa should now be
shown with a light green, rather than gray.

6. Constraints to scaling-up of SRI
 Difficulty in water management in rainfed areas
 Drudgery in using mechanical weeders (motorized
weeders are a solution); need skill in transplanting.
However, appropriate adaptations are evolving
 Inadequate economic capacity, poor marketing linkages
 Most barriers to uptake of SRI are intertwined (Gicheru,
2016). This means that up-scaling efforts should not
focus only on a single barrier. Organized collective
action and an integrated approach can play a key role in
most such situations to achieve coordination
 Will consider Chhattisgarh experience (next few slides)6

7. Distribution of Chhattisgarh Irrigation Development
Project (CIDP) Irrigation Systems, 2011-2012
Earthen field channels by FOs
Wall paintings – agric. extension

8. Strategy: Managing Kharif (wet season - rice) so as
to enhance Rabi (dry season - other cash crops)
 50-year data confirmed: average rainfall between mid-June and
mid-September is 1079 mm. Hence, rice of 4 to 4.5-month
duration can grow with “no water” or with “minimum irrigation”
So, let the Kharif season be “monsoon driven” (match RF with
crop) and use reservoirs only as supplemental irrigation, on “as-
needed” basis. Note: Before project, Rabi CI was 10%, so mostly
“rainfed”
 Advance and shorten Kharif to save water (minimize the use of
reservoir water and maximize the use of rainfall) by: a) planting
early (advanced collective nurseries), b) everyone using 4 to 4.5
month varieties, and c) reducing staggered cultivation,
 Follow-up crop using residual moisture gives more water saving
 These changes need collective action (CA), and multifunctional
farmer organizations (FOs), in this case, WUAs

9. Chhattisgarh: matching crop (4-4.5m paddy) with rainfall:
High yield with very high productivity of water and time
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10. FO-managed Collective Action (CA)
Learning from Gal Oya: Formation of FOs by drawing on or
creating social capital (roles, rules, precedents, procedures,
norms, values). Most farmers being smallholders and poor were
in need of more income which they could increase through
collective action (CA). The sustainability of FOs and operation &
maintenance (O&M) of irrigation infrastructure was undergirded
by FOs’ contribution to members’ income and security
Federated FOs (horizontally and vertically integrated) formed a
FO network that facilitated O&M in a holistic way; FO network
utilized by line agencies like Dept. of Agriculture
FO is a effective mechanism to manage CA (economies of scale,
reduced transaction costs, legal recognition, bargaining power)

11. Participatory process within CIDP
 Catalytic effort for forming FOs by carefully-selected and
trained catalysts; density of catalysts: one per ~1000 ha
 CIDP was driven by a participatory mode of management:
transparency and objectivity, strong norms, ethics and
discipline; sharing of information, openness, debate, and
respecting majority’s decisions
 Efforts always to focus on events instead of on person(s)
 Participatory Performance Assessment and Target Setting
(PPATS): A forum for collaborative diagnosis of issues, debate
and analyse collectively for collective actions (not as fault-
finding, embrace and learn from errors)  create “healthy
competition”; ranking of FOs based on their performance
 This ‘learning process’ gradually promoted FOs

12. Beyond on-farm…
CIDP believed that;
To make the small farmers
and their FOs financially
sustainable, FOs’
entrepreneurial skills need
to be developed, for
 FO-managed CA (provision
of input-output services,
post-harvest management)
FOs should be multi-functional
Make FOs a platform for
integrating efforts of line
departments, like the
Department of Agriculture

13. CIDP – selected achievements
Full cost of CIDP (with R&U) recovered in one season
Kharif yield was doubled, from 2.8 to 5.9 t/ha, acc. to 1,070 crop-
cuts certified by DA and WRD; Kharif cropping intensity = 100%
Rabi cropping intensity = 53% in 2013 (RCI was 10% pre-project)
Significant achievement in SRI,
 Seed self-sufficiency, mass-scale soil
testing, IPM, INM, etc.
Crop diversification and new crops
grown in Rabi season
FOs manage most of the minors, also
input-output marketing, construction
of field channels
FO federations at the district and state levels
4 Producers’ Companies (PCs) were formed, linking FOs with the
private sector

14. Seed self-sufficiency - achieved 100% for intervention
area of 100,000 ha (with 4-4.5 month varieties)

15. System of Rice Intensification – progress
in three years
10% SRI coverage would raise Chhattisgarh average yield up to 7 t/ha

16. Rabi area as a % of project target after rehabilitation
0%
50%
100%
150%
200%
250%
2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13
25%
56%
105%
108%
161%
210%
CultivatedRabiareaasapercent
ofRabidesignedareaafterR&U
Year →

17. FO Federations: district and state levels
TC: Territorial Constituency (lowest level FO, WUA: Water Users’ Association

18. 2.80
3.62
4.01
5.00
4.32
5.67
5.90
0.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
2006
No
Intervetion
2007
11000 ha.
(7 Systems)
2008
25000 ha.
(25
Systems)
2009
25000 ha.
(25
Systems)
2010
100000 ha.
(69
Systems)
2011
90835 ha.
(55
Systems)
2012
101312 ha.
(50
Systems)
Yield(t/ha.)→
Kharif Yield ( t/ha) in Irrigation Systems under CIDP
2006 (Base Year) to Year 2012

19. CA that helped the accelerated adoption of SRI
Factors that affect SRI scaling-up are intertwined,
and in CIDP, CA handled many of these, e.g.
Collective planning and decision-making
Input-output services managed by FOs
Advanced group nurseries were started just before rains using
groundwater
Coordinated timing of planting reducing the gap between the
first and the last farmer
Planting varieties with same maturation by all farmers, planting
shorter-aged varieties if rains came late
Seed production organized by FOs, achieved self-sufficiency

20. CA that helped the accelerated adoption of SRI (continued)
Same package of technology/practices was adopted
by most farmers within an FO: HYV, SRI, IPM (use of
bio-pesticides), INM (preference for using organic
manure, composting with vermiculture)
Rotary weeder provision organized by FOs
Soil testing on mass scale
Experiential capacity building: FFSs based on FOs;
group targets were set and followed-up; ‘progressive
farmer’ approach was avoided; all farmers involved
Participatory performance assessment and target-
setting -- this created healthy competition as well

21. Suggestions: promote farmers’ CA for SRI scaling-up
More rapid scaling-up of SRI is important because it has the
potential for contributing significantly to poverty reduction in
SEA and world-wide
Farmers’ collective action (CA) would be made a key strategy
for accelerating the scaling-up of SRI
CA has already evolved in many project sites, so strengthening is
proposed through planned intervention and social mobilization
CA in production planning, input-output services, including post-
harvest management / value-addition  an integrated approach
aimed at accelerated adoption of SRI and SCI
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22. Farmers’ CA for SRI Scaling-Up (continued)
 Capturing economies of scale through novel
institutional arrangements like multi-functional FOs
(Farmers’ Companies and Farmer Cooperatives)
would be pivotal for commercialization of small-
farmer agriculture and capturing value-added
The strategy would develop mutually-beneficial
partnerships with the private sector to facilitate
farmers’ engaging more fully/fairly in market economy
FOs would develop over time as self-sustained business
entities
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23. 23
Beyond On-Farm Activity: Economic Strength
• CA managed by a strong network of FOs (Farmers’
Companies + Farmers’ Cooperatives) would enable
small farmers to move beyond on-farm activity, e.g.,
to achieve profits through post-harvest management
including value-addition.
• CA would address the crucial issue: once farmers
are successful on the agronomic side, how can they
be similarly successful on the economic side?
• Further, how can farmers’ avoid their agronomic
success leading to economic setbacks? Answers to
these questions are crucial for food security.

24. Conclusion 1
We suggest promotion of CA for future SRI
scaling-up strategy mainly for three reasons:
Crop yield and profit of (small) farmers who adopt SRI
depend on a variety of complementary factors like:
a) adoption of other technologies, post-harvest as well
as production technologies;
b) timely availability of key inputs; and
c) prices of inputs and outputs, access to markets, etc.
Farmers’ CA is capable of dealing with most of these
factors. If these other factors are well-managed, overall
productivity and profit will be greater, and farmers can
capture the full benefits of SRI. This should help to
accelerate rate of SRI adoption.
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25. Conclusion 2
SRI has demonstrated that it is higher-yielding, water-
saving, time-saving and climate-smart. With such
advantages, SRI can lead the way to poverty reduction,
especially because the majority are resource-poor, small
farmers vulnerable to climate change. They are the major
suppliers of staple food in Asia.
If farmers’ CA is supportive of SRI utilization, it can benefit
urban residents also, and especially the urban poor who
spend a larger portion of their meagre incomes on rice.
This should become less expensive with higher efficiency
and productivity in rice-growing.
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26. Conclusion 3
Most small farmers grow also non-rice crops and could
benefit from SCI. But many non-rice crops are more
perishable and CA can make them more remunerative.
Collective action by FOs -- including Farmer Companies and
Farmer Co-operatives -- does double duty for improving the
utilization of SCI as well as SRI.
Therefore, SRI initiatives should attempt to catalyze and
facilitate the development of a strong, vertically and
horizontally integrated network of FOs to manage
collective action for enhancing agronomic efficiency,
farmer incomes, and agroecological sustainability.
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27. Multi-functional FO / Farmers’ Company / Farmers’ Co-op
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