Featured Item: February 2013
- NEW VIDEO SERIES ON THE SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION (SRI) IN AFRICA -
A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT BY IFAD, SRI-RICE AND FLOODED CELLAR PRODUCTIONS
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD*) and SRI-Rice at Cornell University and have teamed up with Flooded Cellar Productions, an international film, TV and video production company, to create a series of videos about how the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) spread and is practiced in several areas of Eastern and Southern Africa.
Based on experiences in IFAD-funded projects in Burundi, Madagascar and Rwanda, the series of videos is about the adoption of SRI by farmers who learned from and teach other farmers like themselves. They demonstrate how to apply the knowledge and the significant benefits it has brought them. The series of five videos shown below is available in English, French and Malagasy languages. (Productions in a fourth language, Kirundi, is forthcoming.) The videos can also also be accessed through the IFAD SRI adoption page (which hosts the videos on the Blip website).
Why SRI?
More than half the world's population relies on rice as a staple food and irrigated rice production is the largest consumer of water in the agricultural sector. The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) can substantially increase rice production while reducing seed requirements by up to 90% and water consumption by an average of 40%, (and, in some cases as much as 85%). As a knowledge-based methodology, SRI does have a learning curve, although it can cost little or nothing to adopt as can be seen in the videos. A "climate-smart" innovation that can help farmers to both adapt to and mitigate climate change, SRI methods are now used in at least 50 countries and by as many as 5 million farmers - both on a small and large scale. While the videos below show specific adaptations to SRI in areas of Africa where they were produced, a more general outline of the methods is available on the SRI-Rice website.
How the Videos Came to be Produced
IFAD has been promoting SRI in Madagascar for well over a decade and more recently brought SRI methods to Rwanda and Burundi from there with the help of the farmers themselves (see article and case study). During 2011, they joined with Flooded Cellar Productions to produce a video on how SRI had spread from Madagascar to Rwanda and Burundi. Based on the enthusiastic response from farmers and the public, the collaborators decided to embark on a series of videos capturing the specific methodologies as carried out and described by the farmers themselves. The videos series was funded by IFAD and produced by Flooded Cellar Productions with technical advice on SRI methods provided by SRI-Rice.
More Information on SRI in Madagascar, Rwanda and Burundi
- Rappocciolo, Francesca. 2012. Spreading the system of rice intensification across East and Southern Africa: Case Study. International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) website. November. (16p. pdf) [Case study on the International Fund for Agricultural Development's progress with promoting SRI in Madagascar, Rwanda and Burundi.]
- 2012. Smallholders fulfil their households' needs with a new way of farming rice. International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) website. [article links to Seeds of Innovation - East and Southern Africa Project bulletin (December 2012)]
- The SRI-Rice System of Rice Intensification website. See country pages for Burundi, Madagascar and Rwanda.
- IFAD. 2013. System of Rice Intensification. International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) website. February.
- Groupement SRI Madagascar website [French] [English] [Malagasy]
Other Videos...
SRI-Rice at Cornell University maintains links to several hundred videos about SRI
- Annotated SRI video listings by country
- Topic-specific YouTube playlists (SRI equipment, motivational, demonstrations, instruction, organic, farmer stories, languages)
- India Collection: Annotated video lists and YouTube playlists
Development Videos by Flooded Cellar Productions
- Flooded Cellar Productions, in addition to its SRI series, maintains a YouTube playlist of 121 short videos and documentaries on development topics worldwide.
Feb. 16, 2013
*The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) works with poor rural people to enable them to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives. Since 1978, IFAD has invested almost US$14.3 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries through projects empowering about 400 million people to break out of poverty, thereby helping to create vibrant rural communities. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome – the United Nations’ food and agriculture hub. It is a unique partnership of 169 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
