The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) promotes collaborative synergies throughout sectors.
The SRI network of government agencies, NGOs, civil society, and the private sector continues to grow in over 60 countries, with a shared goal of more efficient, equitable, and sustained development.
Effective partnerships and collaboration lie at the heart of SRI success.
My hope is to spread our work to other farmers in different villages so that they will do the same work. It will be good for all of us.
Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) are the plans countries pledge to the world to outline and communicate their climate actions in reducing emissions and adapting to climate impacts. NDCs lie at the centre of determining climate progress and ultimately the success in achieving limiting global warming as one world together.
The Global Methane Pledge
was launched at COP 26 in Glasgow, Scotland 2021 as an initiative to reduce global methane emissions in order to strengthen commitments and maintain the possibility of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Of the 105 countries backing the Methane Reduction Pledge, 15 have taken mitigation actions in rice cultivation.
Of the top 10 rice producing countries - notably, those with the greatest ability to directly impact greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in rice cultivation - none have included quantified GHG reduction targets for rice.
With 171 MtCO2e estimated as the global mitigation potential for rice, but with less than 1% registered in country NDCs, the potential in the rice sector for GHG emissions is being detrimentally overlooked.
On November 1st, 2021, 148 countries submitted new or updated NDCs to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Nine of these countries specifically list SRI as part of their mitigation or adaptation actions.
The nine countries displayed below include SRI directly in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) plan.
The government of Vietnam have supported SRI in their national policies since 2007. Although SRI is not named specifically in their most recent NDC submission from 2020, Vietnam includes alternate wetting and drying irrigation, and two further techniques known as '3 decrease 3 increase' (3G3T) and '1 must 5 decrease' (1P5G) in their mitigation plan which both share SRI principles.
3G3T: The ‘3 decreases’ are in expenditure per unit of area, fertiliser use, and the number of pesticide applications; the ‘3 increases’ are in yield, quality, and profit.
1P5G: The ‘1 must’ refers to the compulsory use of certified seed; the ‘5 decreases’ are decreases in water, energy, post-harvest losses, pesticides, and fertiliser use
Over the past 15 years there has been a growing interest in and engagement with SRI from various international organisations that have contributed to the validation of SRI.
A large number of organisations are involved in supporting up-scaling of SRI across the world. The FAO, UNDP, the European Union and Oxfam have an active role in the promotion of SRI by funding or providing partnership for SRI projects. The World Bank, UNEP, UNCSD and the EU’s Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) have also recognised the potential of SRI to reach their goals, and have supported a range of projects globally.
