Perceptions of Farmers about Adoption of System of Rice Intensification (SRI)

Abstract

Rice is one of the most important ingredients of food basket and staple food for population in India. The indiscriminate use of resources particularly, water and fertilizer are creating serious challenges by degrading natural resource base. Also, the productivity of rice has started stagnating in major producing states. The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) was innovated in 1980s’ and was designed to increase the productivity of rice with optimum utilization of water and other inputs and to ensure food security for the billion plus population of the country. This paper aims to analyze the perceptions of growers about biotic and abiotic stresses faced by the producers in cultivation of paddy in an agriculturally advanced state of Haryana. It also seeks to highlight the benefits of the SRI system in terms of yield, cost and net returns in some states. The primary and secondary sources of data are used to fulfill these objectives. Findings show that biotic and abiotic stresses impact yield of paddy across all farm sizes in Haryana. The SRI system is being considered as a solution to these problems. Further, we have established on the basis of secondary data that adoption of the SRI system by paddy growers in some states has increased yield and returns per unit of land. Therefore, pragmatic policy initiatives are urgent to popularize the SRI system in Haryana in order to increase the profitability from cultivating paddy and to save the precious resources.