Ethiopia activities - the System of Rice Intensifcation (SRI)

Ethiopia

Progress and Activities

Ethiopian Workshop on SRI, July 2008
A National Workshop on Food Security in Ethiopia, focused on opportunities created by SRI, was held in Addis Ababa July 29, organized by the Horn of Africa Regional Environmental Center of Addis Ababa University's Science Faculty, with collaboration from the SRI SAI Consultancy Group and CIIFAD. Norman Uphoff made presentations on SRI, on the extension of SRI concepts and methods to other crops, and on capitalizing on biological processes and potentials in soil systems (see article in Addis Fortune).

Participants from government, university, NGO and farming communities expressed much interest, and a joint planning committee was established at the workshop to follow up with trials and demonstrations. Participants from the University, the Ministry of Agriculture, Oxfam America, Sasakawa-Global 2000, Institute for Sustainable Development, and SRI SAI Consultants will cooperate in this effort. Already the rice program of Sasakawa-Global 2000 has increased rice area from 6,000 to 91,000 hectares over the past five years. ISD is particularly interested in the extension of SRI practices to crops like finger millet and wheat. A trip report is available from Uphoff's week in Ethiopia in support of this initiative by Ethiopian institutions.

SRI Trials to Begin in Ethiopia (2003)
• In October 2003, N. Uphoff visited Ethiopia for a CIIFAD watershed project activity and met with the director and staff of the Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute (ARARI) in Bahar Dar, on Lake Tana. This is the area in which irrigated rice production is being started in Ethiopia. ARARI assigned an agronomist with rice experience to undertake SRI evaluations in 2004.

Articles and Reports

Uphoff, N. 2008. Report on a visit to Ethiopia in support of the introduction of SRI (July 26-31, 2008).Trip report prepared for Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development. 14 p. (pdf)

Gebremariamsri, S. 2008 (July 29). System Intensification to Increase Rice Production. Addis Fortune (online) Retrieved Nov. 24. 2008.

Uphoff, N. 2008 (July 27). Application of the principles and practices of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) to other crops in Ethiopia. Presentation at the National Workshop on Food Security in Ethiopia: Opportunities Created by the System of Rice Intensification. Imperial Hotel, Addis Ababa (15.8MB ppt)