Why is SRI Not Presented as a NEW TECHNOLOGY?
We refer to SRI as a system or as a methodology, a system of practices based on a coherent set of concepts and principles that produce desired results. Why not call SRI a technology? This term implies something that is fixed and final, something to be used as instructed — rather than as something still evolving and improving, season by season, as more experience is gained and as more farmers, scientists and others apply their intelligence and insights to making rice production more efficient and sustainable. Indeed, Some Indian colleagues have suggested the SRI stand for System of Rice Improvement. SRI, we like to reiterate, is a work in progress. When SRI is presented not as a technology, i.e., as something to be adopted, but instead as an innovation — based on new thinking about how to provide rice plants with an optimal growing environment this presents SRI as something they can and should contribute to. Further, it makes explicit that farmers are expected to make their own adapta
