Due to my childhood acquaintance with paddy cultivation, I used to be curious to understand global processes and methodologies around this cultivation and to do better to help my local community benefit.
Rice being staple diet for majority of Asia, its importance is well engraved in every culture, every custom of rural India. Needless to say the importance of rice in providing food security to millions, underlining the importance on the economic front that Indian Finance minister still prays for good rains to control inflation every year. With the ever increase in population demand it is always on the rise, whereas the supply is stunted in the bud due to lots of challenges like non availability of labour due to urban migration, high input cultivation costs (chemical fertilizers, seeds, pesticides), year on year decreasing yield levels, etc.
I don’t really know how others perceive this but I would see this as an alarming state, certain and immediate danger which needs to be addressed on urgent basis. The need of the hour is to improve the cultivation methodology, increase the yields with no additional costs, and help restore the faith of farmer in agriculture.
I as a weekend farmer dedicate my weekends in this initiative and sincerely believe in contributing back to society. In my present endeavour, embarked on this journey to find better rice cultivation practice which can be adopted to address these current challenges. One day browsing through the internet stumbled upon the research findings of an international NGO on rice cultivation called SRI (System of Rice Intensification) claiming to increase the rice yields from 30-300 %. Initially I was sceptical on the information, but more and more I read about it from other sources and thought over it, more logical I felt and convinced I became on its principles. The best part of the methodology is, it is flexible to implementation based on the local conditions. So it doesn’t say follow the recipe and will get these results, it says follow the principles for better results. According to me SRI recommends guiding principles for cultivation methodology, which can be adapted to many crops with implementation process variations.
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