Funded by the European Union

Implemented by AIT

SRI-LMB Project in Thailand

Regional Review and Planning Workshop2-3 June 2015

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Mr. Mitesh V. Sawant

THAILAND• Agriculture contributes (12-13 % of GDP)

• Rice production important (50% land area), major exporting country

• Agriculture produce export (30 Billion US$)

• NE Thailand only 8% area is irrigated and remaining 92% is either rainfed or partially irrigated.

• Production System is highly vulnerable and variable in terms of resources

Uttaradit Province:Districts

Ban Khok

Tron

Phichai

Surin Province:DistrictsChumponburi

Thatum

Srikorahpum

Action Sites

Project At Province

• Regional Inception and Planning Workshop• Strategy Paper Development• Participatory Rural Appraisal• National Inception and Planning Workshop• Baseline Survey• Central Farmer’s Participatory Action Research• Farmer’s Participatory Action Research• Provincial workshops • National Review and Planning Workshop

Activities so far

SRI Demonstration SRI- I SRI -LAP Baseline Survey0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00

9.00

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160 8.21 tons / ha

6.25 tons / ha

5.32 tons / ha

3.44 tons / ha

139 %

82 %

55 %

0 %

Percentage Increase from baseline survey

Demonstration SRI-I SRI-LAP0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500 3290.5 $ / ha

2262 $ / ha

1871 $ / ha

76 %

21 %

0 %

Percentage increase of Net Return compare to SRI LAP Practice

Figure 4: Average Net Return & Percentage increase in Net return for SRI demonstration & SRI-I compared to SRI-LAP

Figure 3 : Average Yield (tons/ ha) and percentage increase in yield in SRI Demonstration, SRI-I, SRI-LAP compared to Baseline Survey

Overall trends of the FPAR experiments and SRI Demonstrations

100

600

1100

1600

2100

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00

2471 1835

2103 1704

5.79

4.70

6.705.94

Net

Ret

urn

($/ h

a)

Yiel

d (to

ns /h

a)

SRI-I (R

ainfed

)*

SRI-LAP (R

ainfed

)

SRI-I (Ir

rigate

d)*

SRI-LAP (Ir

rigate

d)0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

012345678910 2380

18622044

16286.11

5.14

6.635.85

Net

Ret

urn

($ /

ha)

Yiel

d (to

ns/ h

a)

Figure 5: Average Net return ($ / ha) and Average yield (tons / ha) in Surin and Uttaradit Province

Figure 6 : Average Net return ($ / ha) and Average yield (tons / ha) in Rainfed and Irrigated areas

Reduce seed rate saved about 250-500 baht;

Reduce water use, saved 2-3 less irrigation cycle;

Reduce agrochemicals use saved about 1000 baht;

Reduce cost of weeding about 300 baht; and Reduce insect’s attacks in SRI Field (30 to 40 %)

Saving in SRI Technique per Rai (1 rai=0.625 ha)

o SRI principles are amenable to the rice production system in both provinces and able to provide better yield and net return under rainfed and irrigated system;

o Adoption of more SRI management practices = higher yield levels

o SRI plants provided better response under drought conditions as experienced in some districts of Surin

o SRI suits well to the upland system (Ban Khok) and well amenable to farmers

o Black Berry and Black Jasmine gave a good response to the SRI management practices and resulted into higher yield and net return compared to the baseline levels

Key Learnings From Wet Season 2014

SWOT Analysis Template

Performance of project activities implementation in Thailand during FPAR wet season 2014-15Strengths

SRI Technique seems favorable to all agro ecological conditions and across the different variety of rice

SRI Crops more resistive to blowing wind and pest attack

Saving of chemical , water and seeds

Obtain high quality of seeds Efficient production with medium to low level production cost.

Weaknesses

Need more labour in SRI operations

Lack of mechanization

Controlling water level is difficult

Lack of awareness among farmers

Farmer dependency on processor and exporters for getting higher prize

Opportunities

Optimize the current production potential

Opportunities to economically and marketing wise further exploit local breaded varieties

Opportunity to grow market for environment friendly rice

Scope for developing mechanize tools for small scale farming.

MoA in Thailand has recently started a big pot project to consolidate rainfed rice farming and SRI project could assist technically to reach out to large no. of farmers

Threats

Majority crop production area is rainfed and successful crop production much depend on a well distribution of monsoon.

Entry of cooperate sector limited to large quantity rice producer and not the small land hold farmers.

Farmers sometime felt uncomfortable with data collection methods as it is time consuming.

Summary of Proposed Planes for Wet Season 2015 All planned experiments in wet season 2015 would be set up using full set of SRI

principles (as many as possible). For comparison purpose similar area (one rai) and similar planting method (direct seeding or transplanting) would be marked in nearby field, their practices would be noted and at the end of the experiment yield and net returns would be compared

Monthly backstopping from provincial office would be endured. PMU, AIT would backstop at planting, tillering, flowering and at harvest stage. A total of 6 times backstopping would be ensured

A pre planting workshop (one day_ would be organized to provide needed trainings on identified issues e.g. composting

PMU would provide drum seeder and hand weeder for experimental purposes, one set in each province

Soil testing would be ensured before experiments to provide need based nutrients to the experiments

Thanking You