DEVELOPMENT OF THE SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION (SRI) IN MADAGASCAR by Norman Uphoff, Cornell University
http://sri.ciifad.cornell.edu/aboutsri/CIP_UPWARD_SRICase.pdf ( article follows) Uphoff, N. 2003. Higher yields with fewer external inputs? The System of Rice Intensification and potential contributions to agricultural sustainability. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 1, 38-50.
Article republished from http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/feb/16/india-rice-farmers-revolution by John Vidal in Bihar, India,The Observer, Saturday 16 February 2013
Sumant Kumar was overjoyed when he harvested his rice last year. There had been good rains in his village of Darveshpura in north-eastIndia and he knew he could improve on the four or five tonnes per hectare that he usually managed. But every stalk he cut on his paddy field near the bank of the Sakri river seemed to weigh heavier than usual, every grain of rice was bigger and when his crop was weighed on the old village scales, even Kumar was shocked. SRI’s origins go back to the 1980s in Madagascar where Henri de Laulanie, a French Jesuit priest and agronomist, observed how villagers grew rice in the uplands. He developed the method but it was an American, professor Norman Uphoff, director of the International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development at Cornell University, who was largely responsible for spreading the word about De Laulanie’s work.
