Malaysia activities - the System of Rice Intensifcation (SRI)

Malaysia

Progress and Activities

2008-2009 Updates

• Malaysia Represented at India's SRI National Symposium
Dr. Anizan Isahak represented the National University of Malaysia at India's SRI National Symposium held in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, December 1-3, 2008. Dr. Izahak helped create SRI-PADI, a faculty-led SRI working group at the National University of Malaysia, which has recently acquired modest funding to begin field evaluations in February 2009. During the symposium, she also met with Annie Mitin, executive director of the Southeast Asia Council for Food Security and Fair Trade (SEACON), with whom she is discussing a SRI "soft launch" in Malaysia. This event will hopefully take place in March or April, 2009.

• SRI Trainings in Indonesia and Malaysia
Through arrangements made by Prof. Iswandi Anas of the National Indonesian Agricultural University (IPB), Dr.Isahak attended a training session on organic SRI at the National Organic SRI Center (NOSC) in Nagrak, Indonesia in the latter part of December 2008. During the visit, plans were made for two NOSC trainers, Deri Ramdani and Misnan Muliadi, to come to Malaysia during January 2009 to conduct organic SRI trainings. They will also help set up SRI evaluation/demonstration plots at the two sites where the trials/demonstrations planned for February will be conducted. Farmers, entrepreneurs and academicians were expected to attend this training, which was limited to 30 persons. Training participants are expected from the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) and the Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (FELCRA), which will soon begin its own SRI trials and evaluations. (see SEACON article)

• SRI Group Formed at National University of Malaysia (UKM)
Dr. Anizan Isahak at the National University of Malaysia has informed us of the creation of a research group at UKM called SRI-PADI. It includes soil scientists and plant physiologists together with a geneticist, a microbiologist, an environmental scientist, a food scientist, and an engineering geologist. The group plans to invite also mechanical engineers (to develop appropriate machines and implements for mechanization) and nutritionists (to assess the nutritional value of SRI rice). The group is seeking research funding and will conduct workshops and conferences on SRI. Faculty of UKM already have good connections with farming communities in rice-growing areas of Malaysia that can facilitate trials and evaluation.

Formation of the group follows from a visit by Norman Uphoff from Cornell in June 2008, when he met with some UKM faculty as well as with the Minister of Agriculture, with rice scientists at the Malaysian Agricultural and Rural Development Institute (MARDI), and with a representative of the NGO community interested in sustainable agriculture. The visit was sponsored and supported by an interdisciplinary group of Malaysian professionals who are interested in developing training programs for the introduction and spread of SRI methods in Malaysia.