IRRI And PhilRice Can Learn How To Grow Organic Rice Intelligently From Sophisticated Lady Emily Suhanto Of Indonesia!

For the past few weeks, I have been searching for intelligent answers why IRRI based in Laguna and Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) based in Nueva Ecija experimented and failed coming up with the low-cost-high-yield System of Rice Intensification (SRI). It did not make sense to me that SRI did not make sense to them!

Is SRI not for rice scientists, only businessminds? Publicly, SRI came to the Philippines via a national NGO seminar on rice in June 1998 co-sponsored by ILEIA (Netherlands) and Cornell University’s CIIFAD (USA), with Justin Rabenandrasana, Secretary of the association Tefy Saina in Madagascar (SRI International Network and Resources Center, sri.ciifad.cornell.edu). Tefy Saina had introduced CIIFAD to SRI.

From the same source, we learn that SRI trials were conducted in Mindanao, obtaining 4.95 t/ha, almost double from 2.5 t/ha. In Negros between 1999 and 2002, the yields were 7+ t/ha.

CIIFAD further reports on the Philippines’ R&D efforts at SRI:

After the director of the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) in the Department of Agriculture learned about SRI at a conference in Indonesia in 2000, the ATI center in Southern Mindanao undertook trials that averaged over 7 t/ha in 2001 and 12 t/ha in 2002. In 2004, the Cotabato ATI center reported even higher SRI yields.

Did IRRI and PhilRice hear of those high yields? Their SRI recorded yields were substandard!

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) at Los Baños, however, reported a disappointing yield of only 1.44 t/ha in its 2003 trials followed by a yield of 3 t/ha in 2004. The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) trials similarly did not report significant increases with SRI.

Repeat: With SRI,, IRRI obtained a yield of 1.44 t/ha in 2003 and 3 t/ha in 2004. Not much improvement. PhilRice did not report encouraging yield increases either. Something wrong where?

I now turn to Emily Suhanto of Indonesia, businesswoman successful with exporting organic rice with her own brand Sunria (“A Celebration Of Women, Water, And Rice” (lotusfoods.com); here she explains possibly why rice farmers (and rice scientists) “reject” SRI:
(image of Emily from lotusfoods.com)

… Even though SRI is more productive while being environmentally friendly, to be fully organic it requires more labor. SRI recommends that farmers make their own fertilizer, compost, and natural pesticides. Farmers are very used to buying chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which is more “instant” than making it themselves. It’s similar to fast food vs slow food.

Organic SRI requires that you produce your own natural fertilizers – and natural pesticides. Nah. Much manual work to do. Learning from Miss Emily, I get it that rice scientists have the same labor mentality as rice farmers!

Will IRRI and PhilRice scientists be inspired when they learn more about how SRI can help fight climate change by contributing zero greenhouse gases? Don’t panic, go organic!

Is the lady a Tramp? No, she is a Triumph where even the world-renown IRRI has failed – system of rice intensification. Miss Emily is more intense than IRRI and PhilRice combined!@517