Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

REVIEW Open Access

Supporting food security in the 21st centurythrough resource-conserving increases inagricultural productionNorman Uphoff12

Abstract

The Green Revolution was accomplished under a set of demographic economic climatic and other conditions inthe 20th century that have been changing and will surely be different and more difficult in the decades ahead Thesuitability and sustainability of any given agricultural technology depends on factors like resource availability andproductivity energy costs and environmental constraints The achievements of Green Revolution technologies inthe 1960s and 1970s came at a critical time of impending food shortages and the worldrsquos people would be worseoff without them However the rate of yield improvement for cereal production has been slowing since themid-1980sLooking ahead at the foreseeable circumstances under which 21st century agricultural producers must try to assurefood security there will be need for technologies that are less dependent on resources that are becoming relativelyscarcer like arable land and water or becoming relatively more costly like energy and petrochemical-based inputsThis paper considers agroecologically-based innovations that reduce farmersrsquo dependence on external inputsrelying more on endogenous processes and existing potentials in plants and soil systems Such resource-conservingproduction represents a different approach to meeting food security goalsWhile these innovations are not yet fully understood and are still being researched there are good agronomicreasons to account for their effectiveness and scientific validations are accumulating Enough successes have beenrecorded from making changes in the management of plants soil water and nutrients that more attention fromresearchers policy-makers and practitioners is warranted especially given the need to adapt to and to mitigate theeffects of climate change The same agroecological concepts and management methods that are enhancing factorproductivity in rice production are giving similar results with other crops such as wheat finger millet sugarcanemustard and tefGenetic potentials are the starting point for any and all agricultural production and current efforts to improve foodsecurity and nutrition through plant breeding efforts should continue However future research and productionstrategies could beneficially seek to capitalize on biological processes and potentials existing within crops and intheir supporting soil systems rather than focusing so predominantly on making modifications in genetic factorsScientific advances in the domains of microbiology soil ecology and epigenetics could foreseeably assist farmers inmeeting production and income goals with resource-economizing methods It remains to be seen to what extentagroecologically-informed methods can help farmers meet expected agricultural production requirements toensure global food security but this direction deserves more attention and support

Keywords Agroecology Food security Green revolution Soil biota System of rice intensification

Correspondence ntulcornelledu1SRI International Network and Resources Center (SRI-Rice) Cornell UniversityIthaca NY 14853 USA2Cornell International Institute for Food Agriculture and Development(CIIFAD) Cornell University Ithaca NY 14853 USA

copy 2012 Uphoff licensee BioMed Central Ltd TCommons Attribution License (httpcreativecreproduction in any medium provided the or

his is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creativeommonsorglicensesby20) which permits unrestricted use distribution andiginal work is properly cited

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 2 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

IntroductionAn overriding challenge for agricultural research andpractice in the 21st century will be to produce morefood and fiber with less investment of our land laborcapital and (particularly) water resources This largeorder must be met in the context of less favorable wea-ther conditions for much if not most of our planet asweather shifts and variability are becoming ever-moreevident constraints for agricultural scientists policy-makers and practitionersDr Norman Borlaug and his generation of agricultural

scientists gave leadership in the 20th century to meetingthe challenge faced then of lsquofeeding a hungry planetrsquoFortunately they achieved some quick and remarkabletechnological advances under the banner of the GreenRevolution It does not detract from their accomplish-ment of raising cereal yields substantially to note how-ever that these gains were made mostly in Asia and thatthe opportunities were not equally distributed across allsizes of landholding A more crucial consideration atpresent is that these improvements have been slackeningover the past 25 yearsWithout the increases in production that resulted from

the Green Revolution millions of people would havesuffered from sickness and hunger and many wouldhave died if there had not been significant increases infood availability in the latter part of the past centuryThis accomplishment is evident from a 50 decline inthe relative real price of food over a four decade periodBut this favorable trend has been reversed with food

prices again rising in recent years Moreover we have todeal now with some very stark constraints foreseeable inthis century Many millions of agricultural producersparticularly in Africa need to raise their production verysubstantially with the resources that they have at hand iflife-saving levels of food security are to be achieved andmaintained to keep hunger poverty and other woesfrom becoming more widespread

Reckoning with a changing worldThe world situation 50 years ago with rapid populationgrowth presented an ominous even dire threat to thewell-being of all people rich and poor alike In the 21stcentury this pressure has fortunately abated as popula-tion growth rates have fallen dramatically over the lastthree decades Still the momentum of even deceleratingpopulation growth means that we must reckon with 9 to10 billion people as the lowest peak population that canbe expected in this century and some of the poorestcountries still have very rapid population growthIt is good news that the lsquopopulation bombrsquo now

appears unlikely to explode A world population whichstabilizes at less than 10 billion and then possiblydeclines is only half as large as what demographers were

predicting when I began working on development issuesover four decades ago Deceleration of populationgrowth to be sure brings some of its own challenges asthere may not be enough productive younger country-men and women to support elderly populations How-ever such problems are less difficult to cope with thanthe multiple lsquobad newsrsquo trends that we need to grapplewith nowIn this century we face a threat to our welfare and

even to our existence that is even more inexorable andpotentially devastating than population growth - climatechange It is neither alarmist nor paranoid to point outthat the continuation of our human species depends onremaining within the ranges of temperature precipita-tion and other climate parameters within which our andother species have evolvedWhile humans are unique in their ability to expand

the range of environments in which they can live draw-ing on our intelligence culture and technology themeans for extension and adaptation of human habitatsdo not come free and the ranges that are physiologicallyas well as economically tolerable are fairly narrow Thereare significant economic and environmental costs as wellas some social and cultural costs involvedAgriculture as a sector is uniquely sensitive to and

dependent on weather factors As we think about ourcountriesrsquo agricultural sectors in the future we need tofigure out how we can cultivate our crops raise our live-stock and fish our water bodies with more resource-economizing methods no longer using water metalschemicals and fuels as profligately as in the past Fur-thermore how can we devise ways to protect our soilsystems watersheds forests hydrological cycles andagroecosystems - indeed how can we restore and re-plenish themMost of the concepts principles laws and even meth-

odologies in our scientific domain have been developedwithin the realms of chemistry physics and engineeringwhere closed-system thinking is realistic indeed neces-sary Biology on the other hand operates with the non-linear logic of open systems where small inputs canproduce large outputs but also where huge inputs cangive no output at all While biology has inputs and out-puts parallel to those that drive chemical and physicalprocesses and that get channeled by engineering itsthroughputs function quite differentlyWhen trying to understand maintain and improve

open-system phenomena we should guard against mind-sets and assumptions that were derived from and are ap-propriate to closed systems While engineering conceptscan be applied to agriculture this does not mean thatagriculture should be seen or managed simply as anindustrial enterprise Although agricultural practice hasmany industrial characteristics and opportunities it

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 3 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

remains essentially biological This becomes even moreevident as we gain a better understanding of some micro-biological dimensions of agriculture as discussed below

When doing more of the same wonrsquot doThe changing circumstances under which agriculturewill be practiced in the 21st century are likely to makeless effective and less economic the agricultural tech-nologies that were successful in the preceding centuryeven with some modifications and evolutions The fore-seeable world presents us with rather different condi-tions and constraints than we had to deal with in thepastAs explained by Hayami and Ruttan [1] past changes

in agricultural technology have been driven by changingfactor proportions These inexorably reshape and redir-ect our future technological paths reflecting the relativeamounts and productivities of land labor and otherresources The added impacts now of climate changewill make the need for different even novel techno-logical solutions even more certainAgriculture in the 21st century will have to deal with

major alterations in the physical and institutionallandscape

Arable land per capita is declining While differentdefinitions of land quality can lead to differentnumbers the combination of continuing populationgrowth and land degradation is surely lowering thisratio By some calculations by the middle of the21st century there will be about one-third as muchcultivable area per person as 100 years earlier fallingfrom about 025 ha to 008 ha per personLand-extensive strategies will thus become lesstenable as the ratios of population-to-land continueto change substantially [2]

Supply of water absolutely essential for agriculturalproduction is becoming less reliable as well as lessavailable for farmers This is a result of competinguses of declines in water quality and of shiftingweather patterns so economizing on water isbecoming an agricultural and social imperativegetting lsquomore crop per droprsquo

Energy costs in the 21st century will almost certainlybe higher than in the 20th century makingenergy-intensive production more costly Thisapplies to the mechanization of operations as well asto our present dependence on petroleum-basedagrochemical inputs Also patterns of agriculturalproduction and consumption that involvelong-distance movement of commodities willbecome less economic as transport costs rise Thiswill make local production economically morecompetitive with distant agricultural operations that

were previously considered to have a comparativeadvantage Moreover the increasing use of grains tomanufacture biofuels in response to the rising pricesfor energy contributes to increased prices of foodgrains which adversely affects particularly thefood-insecure

Environmental concerns are affecting theacceptability of various agricultural practices inmany places Negative externalities such as adverseeffects on water soil and air quality and biodiversitylosses are becoming less tolerated than in the pastgiven larger and denser human populations andmore urban political influence

Pest and disease problems are likely to increasepartly in response to climate changes but also withpest resistance to agrochemical controls as a factorDespite a 14-fold increase in the amount ofpesticides used in the US after World War II thepercentage of crops lost to pests increased in thisperiod from 6 to 13 [3] The theory oflsquotrophobiosisrsquo may help account for thisphenomenon of chemical-induced vulnerability ofcrops to pest and disease losses [4]

Climate changes will make all of these other trendsmore challenging for agricultural producers Alteredtemperature and rainfall patterns will not be feltequally because there will be winners and losersfrom change but especially the poorer countriesand the more marginalized farmers within themappear likely to bear the greatest brunt of newweather regimes and of the greater uncertainty andvariability that these bring lsquoExtreme eventsrsquo arelikely to become both more frequent and moreextreme droughts storms flooding heat wavescold periods disadvantaging both producers andconsumers at the same time

To make matters worse government capabilities todeal with these many problems appear less coherentless stable and less statesmanlike with lesscommitment and less ability to achieve effectivefunctioning of their economies societies andadministrations Our legislative and governingbodies are increasingly beset by narrow partisanshipand jockeying for short-term personal or factionaladvantages Also we are seeing in many parts of theworld an attenuation of cultural and politicalinhibitions against large-scale use of violence - thatgenie which governments previously kept bottled upwith at least some success

Governmentsrsquo fiscal capacities are almosteverywhere stretched to the breaking pointAccumulating debts and voter disaffection arereducing public-sector willingness and ability toinvest in (or subsidize) inputs and improvements in

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 4 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

agriculture even though the central importance offood has not diminished Farm subsidies and exportrestrictions in many countries maintained as aresult of governmentsrsquo political weakness rather thanstrength continue to exert upward pressures onfood grain prices that affect the food-insecure

Furthermore the forces of globalization while theymay open up many opportunities seem also tocontribute to socio-economic instability and inequitythat make national governance ever more difficultSimply the greater scale and complexity of modernsocieties and economies appears to be making ourinstitutions and practices of governance less effective

Slowing gains in agricultural productivity cast anominous shadow over this whole scene The rates ofgrowth in cereal production during the 1970s and1980s were truly remarkable although we shouldnotice that the rate of yield increase was even higherin the 1960s before Green Revolution technologiesbegan taking effect World grain production percapita according to FAO and USDA statisticspeaked in 1984 with the rate of grain productionincreases falling ever since The worldrsquos total grainproduction has been stagnant or declining since themid-1990s [5-7]

The global food crisis in 2007 to 2008 with its hugeprice jumps was prompted by multiple factors butan underlying cause was the tightening of worldfood supplies relative to demand It is true that withavailable resources and improved technology morefood could have been produced in recent years ifthere had been higher market prices for foodHowever if food had been more expensive thiswould have increased the extent of hunger andpoverty in the world both of which are stillunacceptably pervasive

All these considerations make it imperative to findways to raise our agricultural productivity to make ouravailable resources land labor water and capital moreproductive We need to be enhancing food supply par-ticularly on the basis of productivity gains rather thantrying to evoke more food production through the in-centive of higher prices as this will increase food inse-curity for millions of householdsThere are ongoing efforts to improve food security

through genetic improvements that focus on yield re-sistance to various biotic and abiotic stresses andimproved nutritional value through biofortificationWhile some of these gains may be some years away theyare worth pursuing But in the present and near futurewe need to be achieving greater productivity of the keyfactors of production land labor and especially wateras well as capital

The more resources which are require for meetingpeoplersquos food needs the fewer resources are available formeeting other needs for investment in humanresources for housing and infrastructure for expandingresearch and development in other fields Resourcesexpended in food production cannot be used to improveoutput and well-being in other sectors This makes thequest to find ways to produce more food with fewerresources important for the whole world as we head intoan uncertain fairly ominous future

Capitalizing on existing biological opportunitiesMaking improvements in our global ability to meet peo-plersquos needs for sustenance will not solve all of the manyproblems that face our governments and societiesaround the world But if we cannot produce and providesufficient food to everyone - if we tolerate large pocketsof hunger and misery and have large domains of desper-ation with loss of hope for the future - most of the otherproblems that loom on the global agenda will remainbeyond solutionThe limited and in many respects shrinking resources

that are available for agricultural production dictate thatwe intensify our production practices rather than con-tinue with the land-extensive strategies that expanded inthe 20th century relying heavily on mechanization andeconomies of scale In the 21st century these strategiesfor food production being energy-intensive and chem-ical-dependent will become less attractive and indeedless economically viable as factor proportions and rela-tive prices changeThe word lsquointensificationrsquo when applied to agricultural

production has usually referred to an intensification ofinput use [8] The logic of such intensification - and thecost-benefit analysis that guides it - has been to comparehow much more of what inputs will yield how muchmore in resulting outputs If the value of the resultingoutputs from production is sufficiently greater than thecost of the inputs needed to produce them this repre-sents a net gain This strategy has been bolstered byplant-breeding efforts which have developed genotypesthat are more responsive to additional inputs of waterfertilizer and agrochemicals There has been an under-lying assumption that we always need to increase inputsto raise production with the expectation that a greaterincrease in outputs will result to justify the expenditureAn alternative kind of intensification is the intensifica-

tion of management involving both more knowledge andskill - to achieve more output from whatever inputs areused Both approaches of course confront the limita-tions of diminishing returns Management here refers tomaking modifications in and manipulations of thegrowing environment (E) aiming to produce better phe-notypes (P) from the genotypes (G) in use This is

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 5 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

represented by the symbolic equation well-known toplant breeders

P frac14 ƒ G x Eeth THORN

Current agricultural development efforts focus particu-larly on improving G to achieve maximum increasesfrom the resources invested A management-orientedstrategy conversely starts with the best available G fo-cusing on how to improve those factors that constitutethe E for their cropsrsquo growing environments both aboveand below ground The logic of cost-benefit analysis isturned on its head when we try to calculate a ratio be-tween reduced inputs and greater output This may bewhy agroecological alternatives are widely viewed withskepticism

Raising food production especially for the food-insecureAn agroecological innovation that has demonstratedremarkable gains in food output is the System of RiceIntensification (SRI) developed in Madagascar [9-11]This methodology for raising the productivity of all theresources devoted to rice production (land labor seedswater and capital) departs from the intensification strat-egy that relies on new varieties with genetic improve-ment and then on greater external inputsInstead the productivity gains from SRI management

derive from changes made in the way that the riceplants soil water and nutrients are managed their tim-ing spacing and so on The phenotypical changesresulting from modifications in management are easilyseen (Figures 1 and 2) and have been documented and

Figure 1 Phenotypical effects of SRI (System of Rice intensification) mwith SRI methods from a single seed (b) on right a Cuban farmer ho(52 days after sowing) Both Cuban plants were started in the same nurstransplanted into a field where SRI growing conditions were maintained Aof SRI and conventional rice plants on this same Cuban farm in the followiv=1zOMi9Ibao4ampfeature=relmfu Pictures courtesy of Rajendra Uprety DistrPerez then food security advisor Ministry of Sugar Havana Cuba

explained by many researchers for example [12-16]Over 300 published articles on SRI are listed now on theSRI-Rice website at httpsriciifadcornelleduresearchindexhtmljournals Results vary considerably becausethe changes achieved derive more from biological pro-cesses which are vulnerable as well as potent than fromgenetic blueprints or material inputs The preponder-ance of evidence is certainly positiveThe yield effects of intensifying crop management with

SRI methods have been a matter of some controversyamong rice scientists for example [17-20] But govern-ments in China India Indonesia Cambodia and Vietnamwhere two-thirds of the worldrsquos rice is produced havebecome satisfied from their own evaluations that factorproductivity is greatly enhanced by SRI changes in ricecrop management Two of the worldrsquos most eminent ricescientists Dr MS Swaminathan and Prof Yuan Long-pinghave satisfied themselves from their own evaluations thatSRI methods lead to more productive rice plants and haverecommended SRI use in their respective countries Indiaand China [21]In 2007 the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Devel-

opment in Vietnam after three years of evaluationsconcluded and declared that SRI represented a lsquotechnicaladvancersquo At that time fewer than 10000 Vietnamesefarmers were using SRI methods Four years later in 2011the Ministry announced that over 1 million Vietnamesefarmers were using most or all of the recommended SRIpractices - with higher yields less water lower productioncosts and improvements in environmental quality [22]See news report at httpqdndvnqdndsiteen-US7572182156189164012Defaultaspx

anagement (a) Nepali farmer on left holds a rice plant grownlds two rice plants of the same variety (VN2084) and same ageery but the plant on right was removed at 9 days and wasvideo showing week by week the contrasting and divergent growthng year is posted at httpwwwyoutubecomwatchict Agricultural Development Office Biratnagar Nepal and Dr Rena

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 3 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

remains essentially biological This becomes even moreevident as we gain a better understanding of some micro-biological dimensions of agriculture as discussed below

When doing more of the same wonrsquot doThe changing circumstances under which agriculturewill be practiced in the 21st century are likely to makeless effective and less economic the agricultural tech-nologies that were successful in the preceding centuryeven with some modifications and evolutions The fore-seeable world presents us with rather different condi-tions and constraints than we had to deal with in thepastAs explained by Hayami and Ruttan [1] past changes

in agricultural technology have been driven by changingfactor proportions These inexorably reshape and redir-ect our future technological paths reflecting the relativeamounts and productivities of land labor and otherresources The added impacts now of climate changewill make the need for different even novel techno-logical solutions even more certainAgriculture in the 21st century will have to deal with

major alterations in the physical and institutionallandscape

Arable land per capita is declining While differentdefinitions of land quality can lead to differentnumbers the combination of continuing populationgrowth and land degradation is surely lowering thisratio By some calculations by the middle of the21st century there will be about one-third as muchcultivable area per person as 100 years earlier fallingfrom about 025 ha to 008 ha per personLand-extensive strategies will thus become lesstenable as the ratios of population-to-land continueto change substantially [2]

Supply of water absolutely essential for agriculturalproduction is becoming less reliable as well as lessavailable for farmers This is a result of competinguses of declines in water quality and of shiftingweather patterns so economizing on water isbecoming an agricultural and social imperativegetting lsquomore crop per droprsquo

Energy costs in the 21st century will almost certainlybe higher than in the 20th century makingenergy-intensive production more costly Thisapplies to the mechanization of operations as well asto our present dependence on petroleum-basedagrochemical inputs Also patterns of agriculturalproduction and consumption that involvelong-distance movement of commodities willbecome less economic as transport costs rise Thiswill make local production economically morecompetitive with distant agricultural operations that

were previously considered to have a comparativeadvantage Moreover the increasing use of grains tomanufacture biofuels in response to the rising pricesfor energy contributes to increased prices of foodgrains which adversely affects particularly thefood-insecure

Environmental concerns are affecting theacceptability of various agricultural practices inmany places Negative externalities such as adverseeffects on water soil and air quality and biodiversitylosses are becoming less tolerated than in the pastgiven larger and denser human populations andmore urban political influence

Pest and disease problems are likely to increasepartly in response to climate changes but also withpest resistance to agrochemical controls as a factorDespite a 14-fold increase in the amount ofpesticides used in the US after World War II thepercentage of crops lost to pests increased in thisperiod from 6 to 13 [3] The theory oflsquotrophobiosisrsquo may help account for thisphenomenon of chemical-induced vulnerability ofcrops to pest and disease losses [4]

Climate changes will make all of these other trendsmore challenging for agricultural producers Alteredtemperature and rainfall patterns will not be feltequally because there will be winners and losersfrom change but especially the poorer countriesand the more marginalized farmers within themappear likely to bear the greatest brunt of newweather regimes and of the greater uncertainty andvariability that these bring lsquoExtreme eventsrsquo arelikely to become both more frequent and moreextreme droughts storms flooding heat wavescold periods disadvantaging both producers andconsumers at the same time

To make matters worse government capabilities todeal with these many problems appear less coherentless stable and less statesmanlike with lesscommitment and less ability to achieve effectivefunctioning of their economies societies andadministrations Our legislative and governingbodies are increasingly beset by narrow partisanshipand jockeying for short-term personal or factionaladvantages Also we are seeing in many parts of theworld an attenuation of cultural and politicalinhibitions against large-scale use of violence - thatgenie which governments previously kept bottled upwith at least some success

Governmentsrsquo fiscal capacities are almosteverywhere stretched to the breaking pointAccumulating debts and voter disaffection arereducing public-sector willingness and ability toinvest in (or subsidize) inputs and improvements in

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 4 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

agriculture even though the central importance offood has not diminished Farm subsidies and exportrestrictions in many countries maintained as aresult of governmentsrsquo political weakness rather thanstrength continue to exert upward pressures onfood grain prices that affect the food-insecure

Furthermore the forces of globalization while theymay open up many opportunities seem also tocontribute to socio-economic instability and inequitythat make national governance ever more difficultSimply the greater scale and complexity of modernsocieties and economies appears to be making ourinstitutions and practices of governance less effective

Slowing gains in agricultural productivity cast anominous shadow over this whole scene The rates ofgrowth in cereal production during the 1970s and1980s were truly remarkable although we shouldnotice that the rate of yield increase was even higherin the 1960s before Green Revolution technologiesbegan taking effect World grain production percapita according to FAO and USDA statisticspeaked in 1984 with the rate of grain productionincreases falling ever since The worldrsquos total grainproduction has been stagnant or declining since themid-1990s [5-7]

The global food crisis in 2007 to 2008 with its hugeprice jumps was prompted by multiple factors butan underlying cause was the tightening of worldfood supplies relative to demand It is true that withavailable resources and improved technology morefood could have been produced in recent years ifthere had been higher market prices for foodHowever if food had been more expensive thiswould have increased the extent of hunger andpoverty in the world both of which are stillunacceptably pervasive

All these considerations make it imperative to findways to raise our agricultural productivity to make ouravailable resources land labor water and capital moreproductive We need to be enhancing food supply par-ticularly on the basis of productivity gains rather thantrying to evoke more food production through the in-centive of higher prices as this will increase food inse-curity for millions of householdsThere are ongoing efforts to improve food security

through genetic improvements that focus on yield re-sistance to various biotic and abiotic stresses andimproved nutritional value through biofortificationWhile some of these gains may be some years away theyare worth pursuing But in the present and near futurewe need to be achieving greater productivity of the keyfactors of production land labor and especially wateras well as capital

The more resources which are require for meetingpeoplersquos food needs the fewer resources are available formeeting other needs for investment in humanresources for housing and infrastructure for expandingresearch and development in other fields Resourcesexpended in food production cannot be used to improveoutput and well-being in other sectors This makes thequest to find ways to produce more food with fewerresources important for the whole world as we head intoan uncertain fairly ominous future

Capitalizing on existing biological opportunitiesMaking improvements in our global ability to meet peo-plersquos needs for sustenance will not solve all of the manyproblems that face our governments and societiesaround the world But if we cannot produce and providesufficient food to everyone - if we tolerate large pocketsof hunger and misery and have large domains of desper-ation with loss of hope for the future - most of the otherproblems that loom on the global agenda will remainbeyond solutionThe limited and in many respects shrinking resources

that are available for agricultural production dictate thatwe intensify our production practices rather than con-tinue with the land-extensive strategies that expanded inthe 20th century relying heavily on mechanization andeconomies of scale In the 21st century these strategiesfor food production being energy-intensive and chem-ical-dependent will become less attractive and indeedless economically viable as factor proportions and rela-tive prices changeThe word lsquointensificationrsquo when applied to agricultural

production has usually referred to an intensification ofinput use [8] The logic of such intensification - and thecost-benefit analysis that guides it - has been to comparehow much more of what inputs will yield how muchmore in resulting outputs If the value of the resultingoutputs from production is sufficiently greater than thecost of the inputs needed to produce them this repre-sents a net gain This strategy has been bolstered byplant-breeding efforts which have developed genotypesthat are more responsive to additional inputs of waterfertilizer and agrochemicals There has been an under-lying assumption that we always need to increase inputsto raise production with the expectation that a greaterincrease in outputs will result to justify the expenditureAn alternative kind of intensification is the intensifica-

tion of management involving both more knowledge andskill - to achieve more output from whatever inputs areused Both approaches of course confront the limita-tions of diminishing returns Management here refers tomaking modifications in and manipulations of thegrowing environment (E) aiming to produce better phe-notypes (P) from the genotypes (G) in use This is

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 5 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

represented by the symbolic equation well-known toplant breeders

P frac14 ƒ G x Eeth THORN

Current agricultural development efforts focus particu-larly on improving G to achieve maximum increasesfrom the resources invested A management-orientedstrategy conversely starts with the best available G fo-cusing on how to improve those factors that constitutethe E for their cropsrsquo growing environments both aboveand below ground The logic of cost-benefit analysis isturned on its head when we try to calculate a ratio be-tween reduced inputs and greater output This may bewhy agroecological alternatives are widely viewed withskepticism

Raising food production especially for the food-insecureAn agroecological innovation that has demonstratedremarkable gains in food output is the System of RiceIntensification (SRI) developed in Madagascar [9-11]This methodology for raising the productivity of all theresources devoted to rice production (land labor seedswater and capital) departs from the intensification strat-egy that relies on new varieties with genetic improve-ment and then on greater external inputsInstead the productivity gains from SRI management

derive from changes made in the way that the riceplants soil water and nutrients are managed their tim-ing spacing and so on The phenotypical changesresulting from modifications in management are easilyseen (Figures 1 and 2) and have been documented and

Figure 1 Phenotypical effects of SRI (System of Rice intensification) mwith SRI methods from a single seed (b) on right a Cuban farmer ho(52 days after sowing) Both Cuban plants were started in the same nurstransplanted into a field where SRI growing conditions were maintained Aof SRI and conventional rice plants on this same Cuban farm in the followiv=1zOMi9Ibao4ampfeature=relmfu Pictures courtesy of Rajendra Uprety DistrPerez then food security advisor Ministry of Sugar Havana Cuba

explained by many researchers for example [12-16]Over 300 published articles on SRI are listed now on theSRI-Rice website at httpsriciifadcornelleduresearchindexhtmljournals Results vary considerably becausethe changes achieved derive more from biological pro-cesses which are vulnerable as well as potent than fromgenetic blueprints or material inputs The preponder-ance of evidence is certainly positiveThe yield effects of intensifying crop management with

SRI methods have been a matter of some controversyamong rice scientists for example [17-20] But govern-ments in China India Indonesia Cambodia and Vietnamwhere two-thirds of the worldrsquos rice is produced havebecome satisfied from their own evaluations that factorproductivity is greatly enhanced by SRI changes in ricecrop management Two of the worldrsquos most eminent ricescientists Dr MS Swaminathan and Prof Yuan Long-pinghave satisfied themselves from their own evaluations thatSRI methods lead to more productive rice plants and haverecommended SRI use in their respective countries Indiaand China [21]In 2007 the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Devel-

opment in Vietnam after three years of evaluationsconcluded and declared that SRI represented a lsquotechnicaladvancersquo At that time fewer than 10000 Vietnamesefarmers were using SRI methods Four years later in 2011the Ministry announced that over 1 million Vietnamesefarmers were using most or all of the recommended SRIpractices - with higher yields less water lower productioncosts and improvements in environmental quality [22]See news report at httpqdndvnqdndsiteen-US7572182156189164012Defaultaspx

anagement (a) Nepali farmer on left holds a rice plant grownlds two rice plants of the same variety (VN2084) and same ageery but the plant on right was removed at 9 days and wasvideo showing week by week the contrasting and divergent growthng year is posted at httpwwwyoutubecomwatchict Agricultural Development Office Biratnagar Nepal and Dr Rena

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 4 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

agriculture even though the central importance offood has not diminished Farm subsidies and exportrestrictions in many countries maintained as aresult of governmentsrsquo political weakness rather thanstrength continue to exert upward pressures onfood grain prices that affect the food-insecure

Furthermore the forces of globalization while theymay open up many opportunities seem also tocontribute to socio-economic instability and inequitythat make national governance ever more difficultSimply the greater scale and complexity of modernsocieties and economies appears to be making ourinstitutions and practices of governance less effective

Slowing gains in agricultural productivity cast anominous shadow over this whole scene The rates ofgrowth in cereal production during the 1970s and1980s were truly remarkable although we shouldnotice that the rate of yield increase was even higherin the 1960s before Green Revolution technologiesbegan taking effect World grain production percapita according to FAO and USDA statisticspeaked in 1984 with the rate of grain productionincreases falling ever since The worldrsquos total grainproduction has been stagnant or declining since themid-1990s [5-7]

The global food crisis in 2007 to 2008 with its hugeprice jumps was prompted by multiple factors butan underlying cause was the tightening of worldfood supplies relative to demand It is true that withavailable resources and improved technology morefood could have been produced in recent years ifthere had been higher market prices for foodHowever if food had been more expensive thiswould have increased the extent of hunger andpoverty in the world both of which are stillunacceptably pervasive

All these considerations make it imperative to findways to raise our agricultural productivity to make ouravailable resources land labor water and capital moreproductive We need to be enhancing food supply par-ticularly on the basis of productivity gains rather thantrying to evoke more food production through the in-centive of higher prices as this will increase food inse-curity for millions of householdsThere are ongoing efforts to improve food security

through genetic improvements that focus on yield re-sistance to various biotic and abiotic stresses andimproved nutritional value through biofortificationWhile some of these gains may be some years away theyare worth pursuing But in the present and near futurewe need to be achieving greater productivity of the keyfactors of production land labor and especially wateras well as capital

The more resources which are require for meetingpeoplersquos food needs the fewer resources are available formeeting other needs for investment in humanresources for housing and infrastructure for expandingresearch and development in other fields Resourcesexpended in food production cannot be used to improveoutput and well-being in other sectors This makes thequest to find ways to produce more food with fewerresources important for the whole world as we head intoan uncertain fairly ominous future

Capitalizing on existing biological opportunitiesMaking improvements in our global ability to meet peo-plersquos needs for sustenance will not solve all of the manyproblems that face our governments and societiesaround the world But if we cannot produce and providesufficient food to everyone - if we tolerate large pocketsof hunger and misery and have large domains of desper-ation with loss of hope for the future - most of the otherproblems that loom on the global agenda will remainbeyond solutionThe limited and in many respects shrinking resources

that are available for agricultural production dictate thatwe intensify our production practices rather than con-tinue with the land-extensive strategies that expanded inthe 20th century relying heavily on mechanization andeconomies of scale In the 21st century these strategiesfor food production being energy-intensive and chem-ical-dependent will become less attractive and indeedless economically viable as factor proportions and rela-tive prices changeThe word lsquointensificationrsquo when applied to agricultural

production has usually referred to an intensification ofinput use [8] The logic of such intensification - and thecost-benefit analysis that guides it - has been to comparehow much more of what inputs will yield how muchmore in resulting outputs If the value of the resultingoutputs from production is sufficiently greater than thecost of the inputs needed to produce them this repre-sents a net gain This strategy has been bolstered byplant-breeding efforts which have developed genotypesthat are more responsive to additional inputs of waterfertilizer and agrochemicals There has been an under-lying assumption that we always need to increase inputsto raise production with the expectation that a greaterincrease in outputs will result to justify the expenditureAn alternative kind of intensification is the intensifica-

tion of management involving both more knowledge andskill - to achieve more output from whatever inputs areused Both approaches of course confront the limita-tions of diminishing returns Management here refers tomaking modifications in and manipulations of thegrowing environment (E) aiming to produce better phe-notypes (P) from the genotypes (G) in use This is

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 5 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

represented by the symbolic equation well-known toplant breeders

P frac14 ƒ G x Eeth THORN

Current agricultural development efforts focus particu-larly on improving G to achieve maximum increasesfrom the resources invested A management-orientedstrategy conversely starts with the best available G fo-cusing on how to improve those factors that constitutethe E for their cropsrsquo growing environments both aboveand below ground The logic of cost-benefit analysis isturned on its head when we try to calculate a ratio be-tween reduced inputs and greater output This may bewhy agroecological alternatives are widely viewed withskepticism

Raising food production especially for the food-insecureAn agroecological innovation that has demonstratedremarkable gains in food output is the System of RiceIntensification (SRI) developed in Madagascar [9-11]This methodology for raising the productivity of all theresources devoted to rice production (land labor seedswater and capital) departs from the intensification strat-egy that relies on new varieties with genetic improve-ment and then on greater external inputsInstead the productivity gains from SRI management

derive from changes made in the way that the riceplants soil water and nutrients are managed their tim-ing spacing and so on The phenotypical changesresulting from modifications in management are easilyseen (Figures 1 and 2) and have been documented and

Figure 1 Phenotypical effects of SRI (System of Rice intensification) mwith SRI methods from a single seed (b) on right a Cuban farmer ho(52 days after sowing) Both Cuban plants were started in the same nurstransplanted into a field where SRI growing conditions were maintained Aof SRI and conventional rice plants on this same Cuban farm in the followiv=1zOMi9Ibao4ampfeature=relmfu Pictures courtesy of Rajendra Uprety DistrPerez then food security advisor Ministry of Sugar Havana Cuba

explained by many researchers for example [12-16]Over 300 published articles on SRI are listed now on theSRI-Rice website at httpsriciifadcornelleduresearchindexhtmljournals Results vary considerably becausethe changes achieved derive more from biological pro-cesses which are vulnerable as well as potent than fromgenetic blueprints or material inputs The preponder-ance of evidence is certainly positiveThe yield effects of intensifying crop management with

SRI methods have been a matter of some controversyamong rice scientists for example [17-20] But govern-ments in China India Indonesia Cambodia and Vietnamwhere two-thirds of the worldrsquos rice is produced havebecome satisfied from their own evaluations that factorproductivity is greatly enhanced by SRI changes in ricecrop management Two of the worldrsquos most eminent ricescientists Dr MS Swaminathan and Prof Yuan Long-pinghave satisfied themselves from their own evaluations thatSRI methods lead to more productive rice plants and haverecommended SRI use in their respective countries Indiaand China [21]In 2007 the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Devel-

opment in Vietnam after three years of evaluationsconcluded and declared that SRI represented a lsquotechnicaladvancersquo At that time fewer than 10000 Vietnamesefarmers were using SRI methods Four years later in 2011the Ministry announced that over 1 million Vietnamesefarmers were using most or all of the recommended SRIpractices - with higher yields less water lower productioncosts and improvements in environmental quality [22]See news report at httpqdndvnqdndsiteen-US7572182156189164012Defaultaspx

anagement (a) Nepali farmer on left holds a rice plant grownlds two rice plants of the same variety (VN2084) and same ageery but the plant on right was removed at 9 days and wasvideo showing week by week the contrasting and divergent growthng year is posted at httpwwwyoutubecomwatchict Agricultural Development Office Biratnagar Nepal and Dr Rena

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 5 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

represented by the symbolic equation well-known toplant breeders

P frac14 ƒ G x Eeth THORN

Current agricultural development efforts focus particu-larly on improving G to achieve maximum increasesfrom the resources invested A management-orientedstrategy conversely starts with the best available G fo-cusing on how to improve those factors that constitutethe E for their cropsrsquo growing environments both aboveand below ground The logic of cost-benefit analysis isturned on its head when we try to calculate a ratio be-tween reduced inputs and greater output This may bewhy agroecological alternatives are widely viewed withskepticism

Raising food production especially for the food-insecureAn agroecological innovation that has demonstratedremarkable gains in food output is the System of RiceIntensification (SRI) developed in Madagascar [9-11]This methodology for raising the productivity of all theresources devoted to rice production (land labor seedswater and capital) departs from the intensification strat-egy that relies on new varieties with genetic improve-ment and then on greater external inputsInstead the productivity gains from SRI management

derive from changes made in the way that the riceplants soil water and nutrients are managed their tim-ing spacing and so on The phenotypical changesresulting from modifications in management are easilyseen (Figures 1 and 2) and have been documented and

Figure 1 Phenotypical effects of SRI (System of Rice intensification) mwith SRI methods from a single seed (b) on right a Cuban farmer ho(52 days after sowing) Both Cuban plants were started in the same nurstransplanted into a field where SRI growing conditions were maintained Aof SRI and conventional rice plants on this same Cuban farm in the followiv=1zOMi9Ibao4ampfeature=relmfu Pictures courtesy of Rajendra Uprety DistrPerez then food security advisor Ministry of Sugar Havana Cuba

explained by many researchers for example [12-16]Over 300 published articles on SRI are listed now on theSRI-Rice website at httpsriciifadcornelleduresearchindexhtmljournals Results vary considerably becausethe changes achieved derive more from biological pro-cesses which are vulnerable as well as potent than fromgenetic blueprints or material inputs The preponder-ance of evidence is certainly positiveThe yield effects of intensifying crop management with

SRI methods have been a matter of some controversyamong rice scientists for example [17-20] But govern-ments in China India Indonesia Cambodia and Vietnamwhere two-thirds of the worldrsquos rice is produced havebecome satisfied from their own evaluations that factorproductivity is greatly enhanced by SRI changes in ricecrop management Two of the worldrsquos most eminent ricescientists Dr MS Swaminathan and Prof Yuan Long-pinghave satisfied themselves from their own evaluations thatSRI methods lead to more productive rice plants and haverecommended SRI use in their respective countries Indiaand China [21]In 2007 the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Devel-

opment in Vietnam after three years of evaluationsconcluded and declared that SRI represented a lsquotechnicaladvancersquo At that time fewer than 10000 Vietnamesefarmers were using SRI methods Four years later in 2011the Ministry announced that over 1 million Vietnamesefarmers were using most or all of the recommended SRIpractices - with higher yields less water lower productioncosts and improvements in environmental quality [22]See news report at httpqdndvnqdndsiteen-US7572182156189164012Defaultaspx

anagement (a) Nepali farmer on left holds a rice plant grownlds two rice plants of the same variety (VN2084) and same ageery but the plant on right was removed at 9 days and wasvideo showing week by week the contrasting and divergent growthng year is posted at httpwwwyoutubecomwatchict Agricultural Development Office Biratnagar Nepal and Dr Rena

Figure 2 Comparisons of growth response of different varietiesto SRI (System of Rice Intensification) management trial plotsat Al-Mishkhab Rice Research Station Najaf Iraq evaluatingdifferences in varietal response to SRI methods On the left ineach pair of trials are SRI plants being compared with rice plants ofsame variety grown with current best management practices onright Picture courtesy of Dr Khidhir Hameed MRRS

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 6 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

The management changes introduced with SRI in-clude use of younger seedlings if the rice crop is estab-lished by transplanting (note direct-seeding is alsobeginning to be used with the other SRI practices)greatly reduced plant populations by planting singleseedlings in widely-spaced hills no continuous floodingof paddy fields controlling weeds with a mechanicalweeder that aerates the soil plus enhancement of thesoilrsquos organic matter as much as possibleWhen these methods are used together as recom-

mended yield increases have ranged from 20 to 100or sometimes even more with large reductions in seedrequirements (by 80 to 90) in irrigation water (by aquarter to a half ) in chemical fertilizer (by 50 or even100) and in applications of agrochemicals (varyingaccording to how much pest and disease resistance isengendered by SRI methods) Often labor requirementsare also reduced once the methods have been learnedand mastered Unfortunately SRI was initially regardedand dismissed by some as too labor-intensive for farmeracceptance however many farmers in China and Indiaconsider reduction in labor requirements to be one ofSRIs main attractions particularly for women Table 1gives a summary overview of SRI results across 13 coun-tries as assessed by a variety of institutions - inter-national agricultural research centers universitiesgovernment agencies NGOs private firms (Nippon Koeiand SyngentaBangladesh) and a donor agency (GTZ)It is understandable that SRI results have been

received with some incredulity However the bases forthese increases in productivity are becoming better

understood The most evident factor is the greater rootgrowth induced by SRI methods (Figure 1b) Less visiblebut now being documented are the methodsrsquo impacts onsoil biota that provide benefits to rice crops [42-45]Similar benefits are now being seen when SRI methodshave been adapted to other crops such as wheat andsugarcane [4647] finger millet mustard tef and somelegumes and vegetables This adds credibility to the re-markable results that have been reported for riceFor some years skeptics rejected SRI because they

considered some of its reported results to be impossibleThe top yields reported from Madagascar were charac-terized as being above the biological maximum achiev-able with rice [18] However in the 2011 kharif seasonin the Indian state of Bihar five first-time SRI farmers inone village (using hybrid varieties) matched or exceededthe previous world-record yield for paddy of 19 tonshaAccording to Bihar Department of Agriculture data oneachieved a yield of 224 tonsha almost ten times theaverage paddy yield for the state The dry weight was anunprecedented 2016 tonsha [48] These measurementsmade with standard methods and with hundreds ofobservers looking on have been officially acceptedThe controversy over SRI maximum yields has unfor-

tunately deflected attention from the large differences inaverage yields which should have been the central focusof discussion SRI methods have often enabled poorfarmers to double triple or even quadruple their yieldsnot just individually but on a village level without hav-ing to purchase new varieties or agrochemical inputs[49-52] Such resource-limited farmers started at verylow levels of production it is true But for them to gofrom 1 ton per hectare to 4 tons or from 2 tons to 8tons without added costs of production makes a hugedifference in their food security and well-being For the2011 kharif season the Bihar Department of Agriculturein India has calculated an average SRI yield of 808 tonsha on 335000 hectares across all 38 districts of the stateThis was more than three times the state-wide averageof 25 tonshaIt has been argued that the lsquobest management prac-

ticesrsquo (BMP) recommended by scientists can give betterresults than reported from SRI practices [53] Howeverthe evidence and analysis presented to support this claimare seriously flawed [54] More importantly the paddyyields reported above from Bihar state show the argu-ment to be simply wrong SRI methods can surpass whatbest conventional practices can achieve by yielding moreproductive phenotypes The five Bihar farmers who gotSRI yields matching or exceeding the previous worldrecord got less than half as much yield from their hybridvarieties when these were grown on the same farmswith the same soil and same climate using conventionalcrop management methods

Table 1 Review of SRI management impacts on yield water saving costs of production and farmer income per ha in13 countries

Country Farmers (N) orTrialsArea

Conven-tional

yield (tha)

SRIyield(tha)

Yieldincrease

()

Watersaving()

Impact oncost perha ()

Impact onincome per ha

()

Coverage of evaluationand agency doing study

[source of data]

AFGHANISTAN 42d 56 93 55 NM NM NM Aga Khan Foundation programin Baghlan district [23]

BANGLADESH 1073d 544 686 26 NM minus7 +59 2-year study by NGOs andSyngenta under IRRI program

auspices [24]

CAMBODIA 500c 163 229 41 Rainfed minus56 +74 5-province study done forGTZ [25]

Experiencedfarmers

120d 134 275 105 Rainfed minus47 +98 Study of all 3-year SRI usersby CEDAC [26]

CHINA 82c 66 937 42 44 minus74f +64 Village study by ChinaAgricultural University inSichuan province [27]

Sichuanprovince

Total area 2004 to 2010 301967 ha

77 95 23 256 NR Additional incomeUS$320 million

Provincial Department ofAgriculture data 2004 to

2010 [28]

INDIA 108d 412g 547g 32g Rainfed minus35 +67 IWMI-India programme studyin W Bengal [29]

AndhraPradesh state

1525d 631 873 34 40 NM NM Evaluations by AP stateuniversity ANGRAU [30]

INDONESIA 12133d 427 761 78 40 minus20 gt100 On-farm trials managed byNippon Koei TA team 2002

to 2006 [31]

KENYA On-station trials 62 76 26 282 NM NM Mwea irrigation schemetrials 3 replications [32]

Additionaltrials

866 1485 70 24 NM NM Mwea irrigation schemetrials 4 replications [33]

MALI 53d 55 91 60 10 +15 +108 Timbuktu region underAfricare program [34]

MYANMAR 612d 21 44 110 Rainfed +02 87 times more FFS results in Kachin andShan States 3 years [35]

NEPAL 412d 33 61 82 43 minus22e +163 District agricultural extensionprogram Morang [36]

Far Westernregion

890d 401 758 88 gt60 +32 +164 EU-FAO Food FacilityProgramme [3738]

PANAMA 46d 344 475 38 71-86 NM NM 10 communities evaluationby NGO [39]

SRI LANKA 120c 384 552 44 24 minus12 +104 IWMI study in 2 districts [40]

VIETNAM 1274d 558 679 22 33 minus30 +36 MARD FFS results from 13districts [41]

Total N andAverages

18870a 477 712 50 375 minus16 94ab

NM Not measured NR Not reported FFS Farmer Field SchoolsaNot including SichuanChina data bNot including Myanmar datac Based on random samples dResults from all farmers using SRI in area no sampling involvedeLabor-saving hand weeders were not yet available in district to reduce labor inputs and costsfExtension personnel were promoting the purchase of modern seeds and fertilizer simultaneously with SRI methodsg50 increase in the village with normal rainfall 12 in the drought-stricken village

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 7 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

The contention that BMPs are superior to SRI disre-gards the fact that many millions of small and marginalfarmers do not have access to or cannot afford the newseeds and other inputs required for what are considered

as BMP For hunger and poverty to be reduced we needmethods that substantially improve farmersrsquo productivitywith the resources and means that they have at hand Avariety-based input-dependent strategy of agricultural

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 8 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

development has inherent limitations for reducing worldhunger and food insecurity in a significant way

Re-biologizing agricultureExperience with SRI methods has directed our attentionto the symbiotic relationships between plants and soilmicrobes which parallel the growing realization thathumans and other members of the animal kingdom arethemselves thoroughly interdependent with and for thatmatter dependent on microorganisms referred to col-lectively for humans as the human microbiome [55] Themicrobiomes of plants are no less important Appreciat-ing this fact re-focuses our thinking from engineeringand chemical solutions to capitalizing more upon bio-logical and ecological processes and potentialsIt has long been known that the root zones (rhizo-

spheres) of plants are domains of intense and mutuallybeneficial interaction between plant roots and soilorganisms [5657] Research has shown that certain soilorganisms in fact inhabit the leaves sheaths and stalksof rice plants that is their phyllosphere and controlledtrials have demonstrated that this lsquoinfectionrsquo of above-ground plant tissues by soil bacteria is associated withthe plants having larger canopies and root systemshigher levels of chlorophyll and more photosynthesis intheir leaves greater water-use efficiency and higher yield[1558]Moreover the presence of soil rhizobia in the tissues

of leaves and sheaths of rice plants has been seen to up-regulate certain genes that produce proteins supportiveof photosynthesis and other functions in the canopyand these same microorganisms in the roots of riceplants enhance the expression of genes in tissues therethat produce proteins conferring greater protectionagainst pathogens [59] Plant growth and performanceare thus assisted by the presence and influence of soilmicrobesSignaling between roots and shoots via phytohor-

mones has been shown to contribute to higher yield withreduced fertilizer inputs and to healthier plants that re-sist pathogens [60] Even more surprising may be theresults of replicated trials in which rice plants grownfrom seeds inoculated with a certain fungus (Fusariumculmorum) have been found to have five times moreroot growth in their early days after germination andtheir root hairs emerge two days sooner The funguswhen residing in seeds enhances the plantsrsquo ensuinggrowth and robustness [61]The contributions that symbiotic endophytes

microbes living mutualistically within plant tissues andcells can make to crop performance and health are be-coming more evident [62] Learning how to utilize andbenefit from positive microbial influences could possiblyenhance crop productivity in parallel with the

improvements that are expected to be made in humanhealth as a result of contemporary research on thehuman microbiome Research on the microbiomes ofcrop plants should be similarly productive

Focusing research on ecological rather than only onspecies productivityThese findings suggest that we consider making someshifts in the predominant focus for agricultural researchPresent strategies are based on ever-increasing use ofinputs in conjunction with making improvements in gen-otypes with a species focus There is reason to exploremore how improving cropsrsquo environments above andbelow ground through changes in plant soil water andnutrient management can elicit more beneficial expres-sion of crops genetic potentials recognizing that theseare affected by ecological factorsThe focus should be not just on producing more grain

but also on growing plants that can better resist the bi-otic and abiotic stresses that are likely to become morecommon as a result of impending climate changes Theimpetus for this reorientation is coming not so muchfrom research stations as from farmersrsquo fields whereproducers are contending directly with the factors thatcontribute to food security or insecurity (Figures 3 and4)Previously agricultural researchers have focused separ-

ately on individual species of plants or animals in isola-tion from other species Finding ways to capitalize uponsymbiotic relationships among various species ndash consid-ering sets of species together in ecological perspectivesuch as with the lsquopush-pullrsquo crop management systemdeveloped in East Africa to deal with striga infestation ndashcan create multiple benefits at low cost [63]Soil scientists have been evaluating plants perform-

ance often under axenic soil conditions where all life inthe soil has been eliminated by fumigation orsterilization If the effects of soil organisms are studiedpossibly just one or two species would be added back tolook at their effect under what are called gnotobioticconditions in otherwise axenic soil This latter word iscurious because lsquoaxenicrsquo is constructed from Greek se-mantic roots which mean lsquowithout strangersrsquo (a + xenos)This formulation implies that soil organisms are to beconsidered as strangers or foreigners within their ownnatural habitat [64]Future agricultural research in light of recent findings

will do well to examine the performance of crops andlivestock within their ecological contexts Species im-provement should be attempted in the context of inter-actions with other species rather than in isolation Thisis one way in which we can lsquore-biologizersquo agriculturehaving been guided for the past half century more by thedisciplines of chemistry and engineering in league with

Figure 3 Effects on root and tiller growth with modified ricemanagement stump of a rice plant with 223 tillers grown withSRI methods from a single seed presented to the author inOctober 2009 by farmers in a farmer field school at PandarsquoanEast Java Indonesia operated by the Sampoerna Foundationas a corporate social responsibility project This was the farmersrsquobest plant from the previous season but it showed them what asingle seed could produce with optimum growing conditionsPicture by author

Figure 4 Resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses based onalternative crop management two adjacent rice paddy fields inCrawuk village Ngawi district East Java Indonesia after theywere both hit by a brown planthopper (BPH) attack and thenby a tropical storm in June 2011 Paddy field on left planted withan improved rice variety (Ciherang) and using inorganic fertilizer andagrochemical protection gave almost no yield because of BPH burnand lodging From the field on the right 1000 m2 in area plantedwith an aromatic unimproved variety (Sinantur) and having organicSRI management 800 kg was harvested a yield of 8 tonsha Picturegiven to the author by Ms Miyatty Jannah the farmer whomanaged the field on right

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 9 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

the science of genetics The disciplines of microbiologysoil ecology and epigenetics will foreseeably becomemore prominent within the agricultural sciences focus-ing in particular on understanding better how geneticpotentials are expressed (epigenetics) appreciating thatit is phenotypes and not genotypes that we consume asfood

Some implications for plant breedingSRI practitioners have found that the greatest yieldsobtained with their methods have come from what arecalled high-yielding varieties (HYVs) or hybrids Soagroecological approaches do not negate the basis forgenetic research The world-record yield reported abovewas with a hybrid variety with application of some inor-ganic fertilizer although there was primary reliance onorganic fertilization that is on integrated nutrient man-agement [48] It is also true however that many local orindigenous varieties also respond well to SRI manage-ment with some giving yields over 10 tonsha (Theworld average is about 4 tonsha) Since the market pricefor local varieties is often higher because of consumer

taste and other preferences growing lsquounimprovedrsquo culti-vars with SRI practices can be more profitable thanusing HYVsThe kind of plant breeding that Norman Borlaug and

his colleagues undertook has been very successful anddeserves our appreciation But it may not be as suitablea strategy for the emerging conditions that will be facedin the decades ahead Both breeding and managementare essential for success combining the effects of G andE that is clear But since the 1990s there have beendiminishing returns from breeding strategies whereasover the past decade we have been seeing from SRI ex-perience that very great impacts on yield can beachieved by making changes in crop management as ap-parently this has beneficial impacts on cropsrsquo relation-ships with their microbial symbionts [4345]One can find very little in the Green Revolution litera-

ture that examines the contributions of roots and soilbiota to plantsrsquo health and growth These are the factorsthat SRI experience and its extrapolation to other cropsare pointing to as very potent For decades plant bree-ders have sought through genetic improvements to raisethe Harvest Index (HI) that is the proportion of plantbiomass that is found in the edible portion But thefocus has all been on above-ground plant organs Thebiomass in plant roots has not even been consideredwhen calculating HIThe abundant growth of roots has been largely ignored

or even deprecated by plant breeders much as profuse

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 10 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

tillering has been disapproved The prolific growth ofroots and shoots was thought to be wasteful and in com-petition with - rather than supportive of - grain produc-tion (I have been told twice by a senior agronomist inthe US that lsquoroots are a wastersquo because they lower theHarvest Index) However crops in this current centurywill need to be more naturally resistant to pest and dis-ease assaults and to be buffered from drought from rainand wind damage and from temperature stresses Rootdevelopment and more abundant more diverse soilbiota are likely to become more appreciated for theirpromotion of crop resilience and for their enhancementof productivity in the face of climate-change pressures

Future research opportunities and modes of operationThere is widespread agreement on the need for lsquoanotherGreen Revolutionrsquo but the operational shape and direc-tion of this effort remains to be determined Agriculturalscientists have begun to investigate and evaluate SRImethods only in the last few years and these methodsare rapidly spreading to other crops with similar effectsSRI ideas and methods were developed inductively by aJesuit priest [65] based on observations and field experi-mentation so there are surely many opportunities forscientists to make improvements and to determine lim-itations in this methodologyThe symbiotic relationships between crops and benefi-

cial microorganisms appear to be a particularly fruitfularea for research [4361] Studying rhizosphere biologycan illuminate changes in underground dynamics thatoccur when plants are grown using SRI methods For ex-ample spatial and temporal variations in redox gradientscan lead to qualitative and quantitative changes in mi-crobial populations and activity [4266] Recent analysishas underscored the importance of optimizing redoxpotential which has its basis in soil biology as much assoil chemistry and soil physics [67]Research at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute

has shown that SRI methods of cultivation not onlyincreased water productivity (with a 27 saving of irriga-tion water in these trials) but they also enhanced soilmicrobial activity micronutrient uptake and the N con-tent in both soil and grain compared to conventionaltransplanting methods [4568] Biofertilizers and micro-bial inoculants when used with SRI management mayfurther contribute to the prolific growth of roots and fa-cilitate nutrient mobilization and uptake in rice withimprovements in grain quality Much research remainsto be doneAlong with a refocusing of research in microbiological

directions it should be noted that SRI experienceencourages agricultural scientists to work more closelywith practitioners both farmers and NGO personnelwho presently have more knowledge of this innovation

than anyone else Advances in the future are likely tocome from observations experience and thinking frommany sources not just from the formal agriculturaldisciplines

ConclusionsThere is no reason to think that SRI and other agroeco-logical concepts and practices will replace all other kindsof agriculture agricultural change does not proceed sodiscontinuously Norman Borlaug reasonably insistedthat agricultural development be science-based Thismeans that innovations should be examined and evalu-ated objectively and systematically although this doesnot mean that all innovations must originate from theformal scientific community or that knowledge and datacoming from sources other than credentialed scientistsshould be excluded from consideration

Competing interestsThe author declares that he has no competing interests having no financialstake in this subject although he has been personally and professionallyinvolved with trying to make improvements in food security internationallyfor more than 40 years He has been directly involved in encouraging theevaluation and where warranted dissemination of SRI along with otheragroecological innovations for the past 15 years

Authorsrsquo informationNorman Uphoff has been on the faculty of Cornell University since 1970 as aprofessor of government and (since 1990) of international agriculture From1990 to 2005 he served as director of the Cornell International Institute forFood Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD) and he is currently director ofthe Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) while also senior advisor to theSRI International Network and Resources Center (SRI-Rice) based in CIIFAD

AcknowledgementsThis paper updates a presentation made at a forum organized by theNorman Borlaug Foundation at the 2010 BioVision Alexandria InternationalConference held at the Alexandria Library in Egypt in April 2010 Inputs fromDr Radha Prasanna senior scientist in the Indian Agricultural ResearchInstitute New Delhi are gratefully acknowledged

Received 30 July 2012 Accepted 9 October 2012Published 1 December 2012

References1 Hayami Y Ruttan VW Agricultural Development An International Perspective

Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press 19852 UN Environmental Program The Environmental Food Crisis environmentrsquos

Role in Averting Future Food Crises Nairobi 2005 httpwwwgridanopublicationsrrfood-crisis

3 Pimentel D Techniques for Reducing Pesticides Environmental and EconomicBenefits Chichester UK John Wiley 1997

4 Chaboussou F Healthy Crops A New Agricultural Revolution Charnley UKJon Anderson Press 2004

5 Pingali PL Hossain M Gerpacio RV Asian Rice Bowls The Returning CrisisWallingford UK CAB International 1997

6 Dyson T World food trends and prospects to 2025 Proc Natl Acad Sci (US)1999 95929ndash5936

7 Uphoff N Agricultural futures What lies beyond lsquomodern agriculturersquoTrop Agric Assoc Newsletter 2007 2713ndash19 httpwwwbioscienceresourceorgcmsdocumentsTAA2020Bunting20Lecturepdf

8 Reichardt W Dobermann A George T Intensification of rice productionsystems opportunities and limits In Rice in the Global Food System Editedby Dowling NG Greenfield SM Fischer KS Los Bantildeos International RiceResearch Institute 1998127ndash144

Table 1 Review of SRI management impacts on yield water saving costs of production and farmer income per ha in13 countries

Country Farmers (N) orTrialsArea

Conven-tional

yield (tha)

SRIyield(tha)

Yieldincrease

()

Watersaving()

Impact oncost perha ()

Impact onincome per ha

()

Coverage of evaluationand agency doing study

[source of data]

AFGHANISTAN 42d 56 93 55 NM NM NM Aga Khan Foundation programin Baghlan district [23]

BANGLADESH 1073d 544 686 26 NM minus7 +59 2-year study by NGOs andSyngenta under IRRI program

auspices [24]

CAMBODIA 500c 163 229 41 Rainfed minus56 +74 5-province study done forGTZ [25]

Experiencedfarmers

120d 134 275 105 Rainfed minus47 +98 Study of all 3-year SRI usersby CEDAC [26]

CHINA 82c 66 937 42 44 minus74f +64 Village study by ChinaAgricultural University inSichuan province [27]

Sichuanprovince

Total area 2004 to 2010 301967 ha

77 95 23 256 NR Additional incomeUS$320 million

Provincial Department ofAgriculture data 2004 to

2010 [28]

INDIA 108d 412g 547g 32g Rainfed minus35 +67 IWMI-India programme studyin W Bengal [29]

AndhraPradesh state

1525d 631 873 34 40 NM NM Evaluations by AP stateuniversity ANGRAU [30]

INDONESIA 12133d 427 761 78 40 minus20 gt100 On-farm trials managed byNippon Koei TA team 2002

to 2006 [31]

KENYA On-station trials 62 76 26 282 NM NM Mwea irrigation schemetrials 3 replications [32]

Additionaltrials

866 1485 70 24 NM NM Mwea irrigation schemetrials 4 replications [33]

MALI 53d 55 91 60 10 +15 +108 Timbuktu region underAfricare program [34]

MYANMAR 612d 21 44 110 Rainfed +02 87 times more FFS results in Kachin andShan States 3 years [35]

NEPAL 412d 33 61 82 43 minus22e +163 District agricultural extensionprogram Morang [36]

Far Westernregion

890d 401 758 88 gt60 +32 +164 EU-FAO Food FacilityProgramme [3738]

PANAMA 46d 344 475 38 71-86 NM NM 10 communities evaluationby NGO [39]

SRI LANKA 120c 384 552 44 24 minus12 +104 IWMI study in 2 districts [40]

VIETNAM 1274d 558 679 22 33 minus30 +36 MARD FFS results from 13districts [41]

Total N andAverages

18870a 477 712 50 375 minus16 94ab

NM Not measured NR Not reported FFS Farmer Field SchoolsaNot including SichuanChina data bNot including Myanmar datac Based on random samples dResults from all farmers using SRI in area no sampling involvedeLabor-saving hand weeders were not yet available in district to reduce labor inputs and costsfExtension personnel were promoting the purchase of modern seeds and fertilizer simultaneously with SRI methodsg50 increase in the village with normal rainfall 12 in the drought-stricken village

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 7 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

The contention that BMPs are superior to SRI disre-gards the fact that many millions of small and marginalfarmers do not have access to or cannot afford the newseeds and other inputs required for what are considered

as BMP For hunger and poverty to be reduced we needmethods that substantially improve farmersrsquo productivitywith the resources and means that they have at hand Avariety-based input-dependent strategy of agricultural

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 8 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

development has inherent limitations for reducing worldhunger and food insecurity in a significant way

Re-biologizing agricultureExperience with SRI methods has directed our attentionto the symbiotic relationships between plants and soilmicrobes which parallel the growing realization thathumans and other members of the animal kingdom arethemselves thoroughly interdependent with and for thatmatter dependent on microorganisms referred to col-lectively for humans as the human microbiome [55] Themicrobiomes of plants are no less important Appreciat-ing this fact re-focuses our thinking from engineeringand chemical solutions to capitalizing more upon bio-logical and ecological processes and potentialsIt has long been known that the root zones (rhizo-

spheres) of plants are domains of intense and mutuallybeneficial interaction between plant roots and soilorganisms [5657] Research has shown that certain soilorganisms in fact inhabit the leaves sheaths and stalksof rice plants that is their phyllosphere and controlledtrials have demonstrated that this lsquoinfectionrsquo of above-ground plant tissues by soil bacteria is associated withthe plants having larger canopies and root systemshigher levels of chlorophyll and more photosynthesis intheir leaves greater water-use efficiency and higher yield[1558]Moreover the presence of soil rhizobia in the tissues

of leaves and sheaths of rice plants has been seen to up-regulate certain genes that produce proteins supportiveof photosynthesis and other functions in the canopyand these same microorganisms in the roots of riceplants enhance the expression of genes in tissues therethat produce proteins conferring greater protectionagainst pathogens [59] Plant growth and performanceare thus assisted by the presence and influence of soilmicrobesSignaling between roots and shoots via phytohor-

mones has been shown to contribute to higher yield withreduced fertilizer inputs and to healthier plants that re-sist pathogens [60] Even more surprising may be theresults of replicated trials in which rice plants grownfrom seeds inoculated with a certain fungus (Fusariumculmorum) have been found to have five times moreroot growth in their early days after germination andtheir root hairs emerge two days sooner The funguswhen residing in seeds enhances the plantsrsquo ensuinggrowth and robustness [61]The contributions that symbiotic endophytes

microbes living mutualistically within plant tissues andcells can make to crop performance and health are be-coming more evident [62] Learning how to utilize andbenefit from positive microbial influences could possiblyenhance crop productivity in parallel with the

improvements that are expected to be made in humanhealth as a result of contemporary research on thehuman microbiome Research on the microbiomes ofcrop plants should be similarly productive

Focusing research on ecological rather than only onspecies productivityThese findings suggest that we consider making someshifts in the predominant focus for agricultural researchPresent strategies are based on ever-increasing use ofinputs in conjunction with making improvements in gen-otypes with a species focus There is reason to exploremore how improving cropsrsquo environments above andbelow ground through changes in plant soil water andnutrient management can elicit more beneficial expres-sion of crops genetic potentials recognizing that theseare affected by ecological factorsThe focus should be not just on producing more grain

but also on growing plants that can better resist the bi-otic and abiotic stresses that are likely to become morecommon as a result of impending climate changes Theimpetus for this reorientation is coming not so muchfrom research stations as from farmersrsquo fields whereproducers are contending directly with the factors thatcontribute to food security or insecurity (Figures 3 and4)Previously agricultural researchers have focused separ-

ately on individual species of plants or animals in isola-tion from other species Finding ways to capitalize uponsymbiotic relationships among various species ndash consid-ering sets of species together in ecological perspectivesuch as with the lsquopush-pullrsquo crop management systemdeveloped in East Africa to deal with striga infestation ndashcan create multiple benefits at low cost [63]Soil scientists have been evaluating plants perform-

ance often under axenic soil conditions where all life inthe soil has been eliminated by fumigation orsterilization If the effects of soil organisms are studiedpossibly just one or two species would be added back tolook at their effect under what are called gnotobioticconditions in otherwise axenic soil This latter word iscurious because lsquoaxenicrsquo is constructed from Greek se-mantic roots which mean lsquowithout strangersrsquo (a + xenos)This formulation implies that soil organisms are to beconsidered as strangers or foreigners within their ownnatural habitat [64]Future agricultural research in light of recent findings

will do well to examine the performance of crops andlivestock within their ecological contexts Species im-provement should be attempted in the context of inter-actions with other species rather than in isolation Thisis one way in which we can lsquore-biologizersquo agriculturehaving been guided for the past half century more by thedisciplines of chemistry and engineering in league with

Figure 3 Effects on root and tiller growth with modified ricemanagement stump of a rice plant with 223 tillers grown withSRI methods from a single seed presented to the author inOctober 2009 by farmers in a farmer field school at PandarsquoanEast Java Indonesia operated by the Sampoerna Foundationas a corporate social responsibility project This was the farmersrsquobest plant from the previous season but it showed them what asingle seed could produce with optimum growing conditionsPicture by author

Figure 4 Resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses based onalternative crop management two adjacent rice paddy fields inCrawuk village Ngawi district East Java Indonesia after theywere both hit by a brown planthopper (BPH) attack and thenby a tropical storm in June 2011 Paddy field on left planted withan improved rice variety (Ciherang) and using inorganic fertilizer andagrochemical protection gave almost no yield because of BPH burnand lodging From the field on the right 1000 m2 in area plantedwith an aromatic unimproved variety (Sinantur) and having organicSRI management 800 kg was harvested a yield of 8 tonsha Picturegiven to the author by Ms Miyatty Jannah the farmer whomanaged the field on right

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 9 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

the science of genetics The disciplines of microbiologysoil ecology and epigenetics will foreseeably becomemore prominent within the agricultural sciences focus-ing in particular on understanding better how geneticpotentials are expressed (epigenetics) appreciating thatit is phenotypes and not genotypes that we consume asfood

Some implications for plant breedingSRI practitioners have found that the greatest yieldsobtained with their methods have come from what arecalled high-yielding varieties (HYVs) or hybrids Soagroecological approaches do not negate the basis forgenetic research The world-record yield reported abovewas with a hybrid variety with application of some inor-ganic fertilizer although there was primary reliance onorganic fertilization that is on integrated nutrient man-agement [48] It is also true however that many local orindigenous varieties also respond well to SRI manage-ment with some giving yields over 10 tonsha (Theworld average is about 4 tonsha) Since the market pricefor local varieties is often higher because of consumer

taste and other preferences growing lsquounimprovedrsquo culti-vars with SRI practices can be more profitable thanusing HYVsThe kind of plant breeding that Norman Borlaug and

his colleagues undertook has been very successful anddeserves our appreciation But it may not be as suitablea strategy for the emerging conditions that will be facedin the decades ahead Both breeding and managementare essential for success combining the effects of G andE that is clear But since the 1990s there have beendiminishing returns from breeding strategies whereasover the past decade we have been seeing from SRI ex-perience that very great impacts on yield can beachieved by making changes in crop management as ap-parently this has beneficial impacts on cropsrsquo relation-ships with their microbial symbionts [4345]One can find very little in the Green Revolution litera-

ture that examines the contributions of roots and soilbiota to plantsrsquo health and growth These are the factorsthat SRI experience and its extrapolation to other cropsare pointing to as very potent For decades plant bree-ders have sought through genetic improvements to raisethe Harvest Index (HI) that is the proportion of plantbiomass that is found in the edible portion But thefocus has all been on above-ground plant organs Thebiomass in plant roots has not even been consideredwhen calculating HIThe abundant growth of roots has been largely ignored

or even deprecated by plant breeders much as profuse

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 10 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

tillering has been disapproved The prolific growth ofroots and shoots was thought to be wasteful and in com-petition with - rather than supportive of - grain produc-tion (I have been told twice by a senior agronomist inthe US that lsquoroots are a wastersquo because they lower theHarvest Index) However crops in this current centurywill need to be more naturally resistant to pest and dis-ease assaults and to be buffered from drought from rainand wind damage and from temperature stresses Rootdevelopment and more abundant more diverse soilbiota are likely to become more appreciated for theirpromotion of crop resilience and for their enhancementof productivity in the face of climate-change pressures

Future research opportunities and modes of operationThere is widespread agreement on the need for lsquoanotherGreen Revolutionrsquo but the operational shape and direc-tion of this effort remains to be determined Agriculturalscientists have begun to investigate and evaluate SRImethods only in the last few years and these methodsare rapidly spreading to other crops with similar effectsSRI ideas and methods were developed inductively by aJesuit priest [65] based on observations and field experi-mentation so there are surely many opportunities forscientists to make improvements and to determine lim-itations in this methodologyThe symbiotic relationships between crops and benefi-

cial microorganisms appear to be a particularly fruitfularea for research [4361] Studying rhizosphere biologycan illuminate changes in underground dynamics thatoccur when plants are grown using SRI methods For ex-ample spatial and temporal variations in redox gradientscan lead to qualitative and quantitative changes in mi-crobial populations and activity [4266] Recent analysishas underscored the importance of optimizing redoxpotential which has its basis in soil biology as much assoil chemistry and soil physics [67]Research at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute

has shown that SRI methods of cultivation not onlyincreased water productivity (with a 27 saving of irriga-tion water in these trials) but they also enhanced soilmicrobial activity micronutrient uptake and the N con-tent in both soil and grain compared to conventionaltransplanting methods [4568] Biofertilizers and micro-bial inoculants when used with SRI management mayfurther contribute to the prolific growth of roots and fa-cilitate nutrient mobilization and uptake in rice withimprovements in grain quality Much research remainsto be doneAlong with a refocusing of research in microbiological

directions it should be noted that SRI experienceencourages agricultural scientists to work more closelywith practitioners both farmers and NGO personnelwho presently have more knowledge of this innovation

than anyone else Advances in the future are likely tocome from observations experience and thinking frommany sources not just from the formal agriculturaldisciplines

ConclusionsThere is no reason to think that SRI and other agroeco-logical concepts and practices will replace all other kindsof agriculture agricultural change does not proceed sodiscontinuously Norman Borlaug reasonably insistedthat agricultural development be science-based Thismeans that innovations should be examined and evalu-ated objectively and systematically although this doesnot mean that all innovations must originate from theformal scientific community or that knowledge and datacoming from sources other than credentialed scientistsshould be excluded from consideration

Competing interestsThe author declares that he has no competing interests having no financialstake in this subject although he has been personally and professionallyinvolved with trying to make improvements in food security internationallyfor more than 40 years He has been directly involved in encouraging theevaluation and where warranted dissemination of SRI along with otheragroecological innovations for the past 15 years

Authorsrsquo informationNorman Uphoff has been on the faculty of Cornell University since 1970 as aprofessor of government and (since 1990) of international agriculture From1990 to 2005 he served as director of the Cornell International Institute forFood Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD) and he is currently director ofthe Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) while also senior advisor to theSRI International Network and Resources Center (SRI-Rice) based in CIIFAD

AcknowledgementsThis paper updates a presentation made at a forum organized by theNorman Borlaug Foundation at the 2010 BioVision Alexandria InternationalConference held at the Alexandria Library in Egypt in April 2010 Inputs fromDr Radha Prasanna senior scientist in the Indian Agricultural ResearchInstitute New Delhi are gratefully acknowledged

Received 30 July 2012 Accepted 9 October 2012Published 1 December 2012

References1 Hayami Y Ruttan VW Agricultural Development An International Perspective

Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press 19852 UN Environmental Program The Environmental Food Crisis environmentrsquos

Role in Averting Future Food Crises Nairobi 2005 httpwwwgridanopublicationsrrfood-crisis

3 Pimentel D Techniques for Reducing Pesticides Environmental and EconomicBenefits Chichester UK John Wiley 1997

4 Chaboussou F Healthy Crops A New Agricultural Revolution Charnley UKJon Anderson Press 2004

5 Pingali PL Hossain M Gerpacio RV Asian Rice Bowls The Returning CrisisWallingford UK CAB International 1997

6 Dyson T World food trends and prospects to 2025 Proc Natl Acad Sci (US)1999 95929ndash5936

7 Uphoff N Agricultural futures What lies beyond lsquomodern agriculturersquoTrop Agric Assoc Newsletter 2007 2713ndash19 httpwwwbioscienceresourceorgcmsdocumentsTAA2020Bunting20Lecturepdf

8 Reichardt W Dobermann A George T Intensification of rice productionsystems opportunities and limits In Rice in the Global Food System Editedby Dowling NG Greenfield SM Fischer KS Los Bantildeos International RiceResearch Institute 1998127ndash144

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 8 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

development has inherent limitations for reducing worldhunger and food insecurity in a significant way

Re-biologizing agricultureExperience with SRI methods has directed our attentionto the symbiotic relationships between plants and soilmicrobes which parallel the growing realization thathumans and other members of the animal kingdom arethemselves thoroughly interdependent with and for thatmatter dependent on microorganisms referred to col-lectively for humans as the human microbiome [55] Themicrobiomes of plants are no less important Appreciat-ing this fact re-focuses our thinking from engineeringand chemical solutions to capitalizing more upon bio-logical and ecological processes and potentialsIt has long been known that the root zones (rhizo-

spheres) of plants are domains of intense and mutuallybeneficial interaction between plant roots and soilorganisms [5657] Research has shown that certain soilorganisms in fact inhabit the leaves sheaths and stalksof rice plants that is their phyllosphere and controlledtrials have demonstrated that this lsquoinfectionrsquo of above-ground plant tissues by soil bacteria is associated withthe plants having larger canopies and root systemshigher levels of chlorophyll and more photosynthesis intheir leaves greater water-use efficiency and higher yield[1558]Moreover the presence of soil rhizobia in the tissues

of leaves and sheaths of rice plants has been seen to up-regulate certain genes that produce proteins supportiveof photosynthesis and other functions in the canopyand these same microorganisms in the roots of riceplants enhance the expression of genes in tissues therethat produce proteins conferring greater protectionagainst pathogens [59] Plant growth and performanceare thus assisted by the presence and influence of soilmicrobesSignaling between roots and shoots via phytohor-

mones has been shown to contribute to higher yield withreduced fertilizer inputs and to healthier plants that re-sist pathogens [60] Even more surprising may be theresults of replicated trials in which rice plants grownfrom seeds inoculated with a certain fungus (Fusariumculmorum) have been found to have five times moreroot growth in their early days after germination andtheir root hairs emerge two days sooner The funguswhen residing in seeds enhances the plantsrsquo ensuinggrowth and robustness [61]The contributions that symbiotic endophytes

microbes living mutualistically within plant tissues andcells can make to crop performance and health are be-coming more evident [62] Learning how to utilize andbenefit from positive microbial influences could possiblyenhance crop productivity in parallel with the

improvements that are expected to be made in humanhealth as a result of contemporary research on thehuman microbiome Research on the microbiomes ofcrop plants should be similarly productive

Focusing research on ecological rather than only onspecies productivityThese findings suggest that we consider making someshifts in the predominant focus for agricultural researchPresent strategies are based on ever-increasing use ofinputs in conjunction with making improvements in gen-otypes with a species focus There is reason to exploremore how improving cropsrsquo environments above andbelow ground through changes in plant soil water andnutrient management can elicit more beneficial expres-sion of crops genetic potentials recognizing that theseare affected by ecological factorsThe focus should be not just on producing more grain

but also on growing plants that can better resist the bi-otic and abiotic stresses that are likely to become morecommon as a result of impending climate changes Theimpetus for this reorientation is coming not so muchfrom research stations as from farmersrsquo fields whereproducers are contending directly with the factors thatcontribute to food security or insecurity (Figures 3 and4)Previously agricultural researchers have focused separ-

ately on individual species of plants or animals in isola-tion from other species Finding ways to capitalize uponsymbiotic relationships among various species ndash consid-ering sets of species together in ecological perspectivesuch as with the lsquopush-pullrsquo crop management systemdeveloped in East Africa to deal with striga infestation ndashcan create multiple benefits at low cost [63]Soil scientists have been evaluating plants perform-

ance often under axenic soil conditions where all life inthe soil has been eliminated by fumigation orsterilization If the effects of soil organisms are studiedpossibly just one or two species would be added back tolook at their effect under what are called gnotobioticconditions in otherwise axenic soil This latter word iscurious because lsquoaxenicrsquo is constructed from Greek se-mantic roots which mean lsquowithout strangersrsquo (a + xenos)This formulation implies that soil organisms are to beconsidered as strangers or foreigners within their ownnatural habitat [64]Future agricultural research in light of recent findings

will do well to examine the performance of crops andlivestock within their ecological contexts Species im-provement should be attempted in the context of inter-actions with other species rather than in isolation Thisis one way in which we can lsquore-biologizersquo agriculturehaving been guided for the past half century more by thedisciplines of chemistry and engineering in league with

Figure 3 Effects on root and tiller growth with modified ricemanagement stump of a rice plant with 223 tillers grown withSRI methods from a single seed presented to the author inOctober 2009 by farmers in a farmer field school at PandarsquoanEast Java Indonesia operated by the Sampoerna Foundationas a corporate social responsibility project This was the farmersrsquobest plant from the previous season but it showed them what asingle seed could produce with optimum growing conditionsPicture by author

Figure 4 Resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses based onalternative crop management two adjacent rice paddy fields inCrawuk village Ngawi district East Java Indonesia after theywere both hit by a brown planthopper (BPH) attack and thenby a tropical storm in June 2011 Paddy field on left planted withan improved rice variety (Ciherang) and using inorganic fertilizer andagrochemical protection gave almost no yield because of BPH burnand lodging From the field on the right 1000 m2 in area plantedwith an aromatic unimproved variety (Sinantur) and having organicSRI management 800 kg was harvested a yield of 8 tonsha Picturegiven to the author by Ms Miyatty Jannah the farmer whomanaged the field on right

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 9 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

the science of genetics The disciplines of microbiologysoil ecology and epigenetics will foreseeably becomemore prominent within the agricultural sciences focus-ing in particular on understanding better how geneticpotentials are expressed (epigenetics) appreciating thatit is phenotypes and not genotypes that we consume asfood

Some implications for plant breedingSRI practitioners have found that the greatest yieldsobtained with their methods have come from what arecalled high-yielding varieties (HYVs) or hybrids Soagroecological approaches do not negate the basis forgenetic research The world-record yield reported abovewas with a hybrid variety with application of some inor-ganic fertilizer although there was primary reliance onorganic fertilization that is on integrated nutrient man-agement [48] It is also true however that many local orindigenous varieties also respond well to SRI manage-ment with some giving yields over 10 tonsha (Theworld average is about 4 tonsha) Since the market pricefor local varieties is often higher because of consumer

taste and other preferences growing lsquounimprovedrsquo culti-vars with SRI practices can be more profitable thanusing HYVsThe kind of plant breeding that Norman Borlaug and

his colleagues undertook has been very successful anddeserves our appreciation But it may not be as suitablea strategy for the emerging conditions that will be facedin the decades ahead Both breeding and managementare essential for success combining the effects of G andE that is clear But since the 1990s there have beendiminishing returns from breeding strategies whereasover the past decade we have been seeing from SRI ex-perience that very great impacts on yield can beachieved by making changes in crop management as ap-parently this has beneficial impacts on cropsrsquo relation-ships with their microbial symbionts [4345]One can find very little in the Green Revolution litera-

ture that examines the contributions of roots and soilbiota to plantsrsquo health and growth These are the factorsthat SRI experience and its extrapolation to other cropsare pointing to as very potent For decades plant bree-ders have sought through genetic improvements to raisethe Harvest Index (HI) that is the proportion of plantbiomass that is found in the edible portion But thefocus has all been on above-ground plant organs Thebiomass in plant roots has not even been consideredwhen calculating HIThe abundant growth of roots has been largely ignored

or even deprecated by plant breeders much as profuse

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 10 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

tillering has been disapproved The prolific growth ofroots and shoots was thought to be wasteful and in com-petition with - rather than supportive of - grain produc-tion (I have been told twice by a senior agronomist inthe US that lsquoroots are a wastersquo because they lower theHarvest Index) However crops in this current centurywill need to be more naturally resistant to pest and dis-ease assaults and to be buffered from drought from rainand wind damage and from temperature stresses Rootdevelopment and more abundant more diverse soilbiota are likely to become more appreciated for theirpromotion of crop resilience and for their enhancementof productivity in the face of climate-change pressures

Future research opportunities and modes of operationThere is widespread agreement on the need for lsquoanotherGreen Revolutionrsquo but the operational shape and direc-tion of this effort remains to be determined Agriculturalscientists have begun to investigate and evaluate SRImethods only in the last few years and these methodsare rapidly spreading to other crops with similar effectsSRI ideas and methods were developed inductively by aJesuit priest [65] based on observations and field experi-mentation so there are surely many opportunities forscientists to make improvements and to determine lim-itations in this methodologyThe symbiotic relationships between crops and benefi-

cial microorganisms appear to be a particularly fruitfularea for research [4361] Studying rhizosphere biologycan illuminate changes in underground dynamics thatoccur when plants are grown using SRI methods For ex-ample spatial and temporal variations in redox gradientscan lead to qualitative and quantitative changes in mi-crobial populations and activity [4266] Recent analysishas underscored the importance of optimizing redoxpotential which has its basis in soil biology as much assoil chemistry and soil physics [67]Research at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute

has shown that SRI methods of cultivation not onlyincreased water productivity (with a 27 saving of irriga-tion water in these trials) but they also enhanced soilmicrobial activity micronutrient uptake and the N con-tent in both soil and grain compared to conventionaltransplanting methods [4568] Biofertilizers and micro-bial inoculants when used with SRI management mayfurther contribute to the prolific growth of roots and fa-cilitate nutrient mobilization and uptake in rice withimprovements in grain quality Much research remainsto be doneAlong with a refocusing of research in microbiological

directions it should be noted that SRI experienceencourages agricultural scientists to work more closelywith practitioners both farmers and NGO personnelwho presently have more knowledge of this innovation

than anyone else Advances in the future are likely tocome from observations experience and thinking frommany sources not just from the formal agriculturaldisciplines

ConclusionsThere is no reason to think that SRI and other agroeco-logical concepts and practices will replace all other kindsof agriculture agricultural change does not proceed sodiscontinuously Norman Borlaug reasonably insistedthat agricultural development be science-based Thismeans that innovations should be examined and evalu-ated objectively and systematically although this doesnot mean that all innovations must originate from theformal scientific community or that knowledge and datacoming from sources other than credentialed scientistsshould be excluded from consideration

Competing interestsThe author declares that he has no competing interests having no financialstake in this subject although he has been personally and professionallyinvolved with trying to make improvements in food security internationallyfor more than 40 years He has been directly involved in encouraging theevaluation and where warranted dissemination of SRI along with otheragroecological innovations for the past 15 years

Authorsrsquo informationNorman Uphoff has been on the faculty of Cornell University since 1970 as aprofessor of government and (since 1990) of international agriculture From1990 to 2005 he served as director of the Cornell International Institute forFood Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD) and he is currently director ofthe Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) while also senior advisor to theSRI International Network and Resources Center (SRI-Rice) based in CIIFAD

AcknowledgementsThis paper updates a presentation made at a forum organized by theNorman Borlaug Foundation at the 2010 BioVision Alexandria InternationalConference held at the Alexandria Library in Egypt in April 2010 Inputs fromDr Radha Prasanna senior scientist in the Indian Agricultural ResearchInstitute New Delhi are gratefully acknowledged

Received 30 July 2012 Accepted 9 October 2012Published 1 December 2012

References1 Hayami Y Ruttan VW Agricultural Development An International Perspective

Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press 19852 UN Environmental Program The Environmental Food Crisis environmentrsquos

Role in Averting Future Food Crises Nairobi 2005 httpwwwgridanopublicationsrrfood-crisis

3 Pimentel D Techniques for Reducing Pesticides Environmental and EconomicBenefits Chichester UK John Wiley 1997

4 Chaboussou F Healthy Crops A New Agricultural Revolution Charnley UKJon Anderson Press 2004

5 Pingali PL Hossain M Gerpacio RV Asian Rice Bowls The Returning CrisisWallingford UK CAB International 1997

6 Dyson T World food trends and prospects to 2025 Proc Natl Acad Sci (US)1999 95929ndash5936

7 Uphoff N Agricultural futures What lies beyond lsquomodern agriculturersquoTrop Agric Assoc Newsletter 2007 2713ndash19 httpwwwbioscienceresourceorgcmsdocumentsTAA2020Bunting20Lecturepdf

8 Reichardt W Dobermann A George T Intensification of rice productionsystems opportunities and limits In Rice in the Global Food System Editedby Dowling NG Greenfield SM Fischer KS Los Bantildeos International RiceResearch Institute 1998127ndash144

Figure 3 Effects on root and tiller growth with modified ricemanagement stump of a rice plant with 223 tillers grown withSRI methods from a single seed presented to the author inOctober 2009 by farmers in a farmer field school at PandarsquoanEast Java Indonesia operated by the Sampoerna Foundationas a corporate social responsibility project This was the farmersrsquobest plant from the previous season but it showed them what asingle seed could produce with optimum growing conditionsPicture by author

Figure 4 Resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses based onalternative crop management two adjacent rice paddy fields inCrawuk village Ngawi district East Java Indonesia after theywere both hit by a brown planthopper (BPH) attack and thenby a tropical storm in June 2011 Paddy field on left planted withan improved rice variety (Ciherang) and using inorganic fertilizer andagrochemical protection gave almost no yield because of BPH burnand lodging From the field on the right 1000 m2 in area plantedwith an aromatic unimproved variety (Sinantur) and having organicSRI management 800 kg was harvested a yield of 8 tonsha Picturegiven to the author by Ms Miyatty Jannah the farmer whomanaged the field on right

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 9 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

the science of genetics The disciplines of microbiologysoil ecology and epigenetics will foreseeably becomemore prominent within the agricultural sciences focus-ing in particular on understanding better how geneticpotentials are expressed (epigenetics) appreciating thatit is phenotypes and not genotypes that we consume asfood

Some implications for plant breedingSRI practitioners have found that the greatest yieldsobtained with their methods have come from what arecalled high-yielding varieties (HYVs) or hybrids Soagroecological approaches do not negate the basis forgenetic research The world-record yield reported abovewas with a hybrid variety with application of some inor-ganic fertilizer although there was primary reliance onorganic fertilization that is on integrated nutrient man-agement [48] It is also true however that many local orindigenous varieties also respond well to SRI manage-ment with some giving yields over 10 tonsha (Theworld average is about 4 tonsha) Since the market pricefor local varieties is often higher because of consumer

taste and other preferences growing lsquounimprovedrsquo culti-vars with SRI practices can be more profitable thanusing HYVsThe kind of plant breeding that Norman Borlaug and

his colleagues undertook has been very successful anddeserves our appreciation But it may not be as suitablea strategy for the emerging conditions that will be facedin the decades ahead Both breeding and managementare essential for success combining the effects of G andE that is clear But since the 1990s there have beendiminishing returns from breeding strategies whereasover the past decade we have been seeing from SRI ex-perience that very great impacts on yield can beachieved by making changes in crop management as ap-parently this has beneficial impacts on cropsrsquo relation-ships with their microbial symbionts [4345]One can find very little in the Green Revolution litera-

ture that examines the contributions of roots and soilbiota to plantsrsquo health and growth These are the factorsthat SRI experience and its extrapolation to other cropsare pointing to as very potent For decades plant bree-ders have sought through genetic improvements to raisethe Harvest Index (HI) that is the proportion of plantbiomass that is found in the edible portion But thefocus has all been on above-ground plant organs Thebiomass in plant roots has not even been consideredwhen calculating HIThe abundant growth of roots has been largely ignored

or even deprecated by plant breeders much as profuse

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 10 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

tillering has been disapproved The prolific growth ofroots and shoots was thought to be wasteful and in com-petition with - rather than supportive of - grain produc-tion (I have been told twice by a senior agronomist inthe US that lsquoroots are a wastersquo because they lower theHarvest Index) However crops in this current centurywill need to be more naturally resistant to pest and dis-ease assaults and to be buffered from drought from rainand wind damage and from temperature stresses Rootdevelopment and more abundant more diverse soilbiota are likely to become more appreciated for theirpromotion of crop resilience and for their enhancementof productivity in the face of climate-change pressures

Future research opportunities and modes of operationThere is widespread agreement on the need for lsquoanotherGreen Revolutionrsquo but the operational shape and direc-tion of this effort remains to be determined Agriculturalscientists have begun to investigate and evaluate SRImethods only in the last few years and these methodsare rapidly spreading to other crops with similar effectsSRI ideas and methods were developed inductively by aJesuit priest [65] based on observations and field experi-mentation so there are surely many opportunities forscientists to make improvements and to determine lim-itations in this methodologyThe symbiotic relationships between crops and benefi-

cial microorganisms appear to be a particularly fruitfularea for research [4361] Studying rhizosphere biologycan illuminate changes in underground dynamics thatoccur when plants are grown using SRI methods For ex-ample spatial and temporal variations in redox gradientscan lead to qualitative and quantitative changes in mi-crobial populations and activity [4266] Recent analysishas underscored the importance of optimizing redoxpotential which has its basis in soil biology as much assoil chemistry and soil physics [67]Research at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute

has shown that SRI methods of cultivation not onlyincreased water productivity (with a 27 saving of irriga-tion water in these trials) but they also enhanced soilmicrobial activity micronutrient uptake and the N con-tent in both soil and grain compared to conventionaltransplanting methods [4568] Biofertilizers and micro-bial inoculants when used with SRI management mayfurther contribute to the prolific growth of roots and fa-cilitate nutrient mobilization and uptake in rice withimprovements in grain quality Much research remainsto be doneAlong with a refocusing of research in microbiological

directions it should be noted that SRI experienceencourages agricultural scientists to work more closelywith practitioners both farmers and NGO personnelwho presently have more knowledge of this innovation

than anyone else Advances in the future are likely tocome from observations experience and thinking frommany sources not just from the formal agriculturaldisciplines

ConclusionsThere is no reason to think that SRI and other agroeco-logical concepts and practices will replace all other kindsof agriculture agricultural change does not proceed sodiscontinuously Norman Borlaug reasonably insistedthat agricultural development be science-based Thismeans that innovations should be examined and evalu-ated objectively and systematically although this doesnot mean that all innovations must originate from theformal scientific community or that knowledge and datacoming from sources other than credentialed scientistsshould be excluded from consideration

Competing interestsThe author declares that he has no competing interests having no financialstake in this subject although he has been personally and professionallyinvolved with trying to make improvements in food security internationallyfor more than 40 years He has been directly involved in encouraging theevaluation and where warranted dissemination of SRI along with otheragroecological innovations for the past 15 years

Authorsrsquo informationNorman Uphoff has been on the faculty of Cornell University since 1970 as aprofessor of government and (since 1990) of international agriculture From1990 to 2005 he served as director of the Cornell International Institute forFood Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD) and he is currently director ofthe Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) while also senior advisor to theSRI International Network and Resources Center (SRI-Rice) based in CIIFAD

AcknowledgementsThis paper updates a presentation made at a forum organized by theNorman Borlaug Foundation at the 2010 BioVision Alexandria InternationalConference held at the Alexandria Library in Egypt in April 2010 Inputs fromDr Radha Prasanna senior scientist in the Indian Agricultural ResearchInstitute New Delhi are gratefully acknowledged

Received 30 July 2012 Accepted 9 October 2012Published 1 December 2012

References1 Hayami Y Ruttan VW Agricultural Development An International Perspective

Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press 19852 UN Environmental Program The Environmental Food Crisis environmentrsquos

Role in Averting Future Food Crises Nairobi 2005 httpwwwgridanopublicationsrrfood-crisis

3 Pimentel D Techniques for Reducing Pesticides Environmental and EconomicBenefits Chichester UK John Wiley 1997

4 Chaboussou F Healthy Crops A New Agricultural Revolution Charnley UKJon Anderson Press 2004

5 Pingali PL Hossain M Gerpacio RV Asian Rice Bowls The Returning CrisisWallingford UK CAB International 1997

6 Dyson T World food trends and prospects to 2025 Proc Natl Acad Sci (US)1999 95929ndash5936

7 Uphoff N Agricultural futures What lies beyond lsquomodern agriculturersquoTrop Agric Assoc Newsletter 2007 2713ndash19 httpwwwbioscienceresourceorgcmsdocumentsTAA2020Bunting20Lecturepdf

8 Reichardt W Dobermann A George T Intensification of rice productionsystems opportunities and limits In Rice in the Global Food System Editedby Dowling NG Greenfield SM Fischer KS Los Bantildeos International RiceResearch Institute 1998127ndash144

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 10 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

tillering has been disapproved The prolific growth ofroots and shoots was thought to be wasteful and in com-petition with - rather than supportive of - grain produc-tion (I have been told twice by a senior agronomist inthe US that lsquoroots are a wastersquo because they lower theHarvest Index) However crops in this current centurywill need to be more naturally resistant to pest and dis-ease assaults and to be buffered from drought from rainand wind damage and from temperature stresses Rootdevelopment and more abundant more diverse soilbiota are likely to become more appreciated for theirpromotion of crop resilience and for their enhancementof productivity in the face of climate-change pressures

Future research opportunities and modes of operationThere is widespread agreement on the need for lsquoanotherGreen Revolutionrsquo but the operational shape and direc-tion of this effort remains to be determined Agriculturalscientists have begun to investigate and evaluate SRImethods only in the last few years and these methodsare rapidly spreading to other crops with similar effectsSRI ideas and methods were developed inductively by aJesuit priest [65] based on observations and field experi-mentation so there are surely many opportunities forscientists to make improvements and to determine lim-itations in this methodologyThe symbiotic relationships between crops and benefi-

cial microorganisms appear to be a particularly fruitfularea for research [4361] Studying rhizosphere biologycan illuminate changes in underground dynamics thatoccur when plants are grown using SRI methods For ex-ample spatial and temporal variations in redox gradientscan lead to qualitative and quantitative changes in mi-crobial populations and activity [4266] Recent analysishas underscored the importance of optimizing redoxpotential which has its basis in soil biology as much assoil chemistry and soil physics [67]Research at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute

has shown that SRI methods of cultivation not onlyincreased water productivity (with a 27 saving of irriga-tion water in these trials) but they also enhanced soilmicrobial activity micronutrient uptake and the N con-tent in both soil and grain compared to conventionaltransplanting methods [4568] Biofertilizers and micro-bial inoculants when used with SRI management mayfurther contribute to the prolific growth of roots and fa-cilitate nutrient mobilization and uptake in rice withimprovements in grain quality Much research remainsto be doneAlong with a refocusing of research in microbiological

directions it should be noted that SRI experienceencourages agricultural scientists to work more closelywith practitioners both farmers and NGO personnelwho presently have more knowledge of this innovation

than anyone else Advances in the future are likely tocome from observations experience and thinking frommany sources not just from the formal agriculturaldisciplines

ConclusionsThere is no reason to think that SRI and other agroeco-logical concepts and practices will replace all other kindsof agriculture agricultural change does not proceed sodiscontinuously Norman Borlaug reasonably insistedthat agricultural development be science-based Thismeans that innovations should be examined and evalu-ated objectively and systematically although this doesnot mean that all innovations must originate from theformal scientific community or that knowledge and datacoming from sources other than credentialed scientistsshould be excluded from consideration

Competing interestsThe author declares that he has no competing interests having no financialstake in this subject although he has been personally and professionallyinvolved with trying to make improvements in food security internationallyfor more than 40 years He has been directly involved in encouraging theevaluation and where warranted dissemination of SRI along with otheragroecological innovations for the past 15 years

Authorsrsquo informationNorman Uphoff has been on the faculty of Cornell University since 1970 as aprofessor of government and (since 1990) of international agriculture From1990 to 2005 he served as director of the Cornell International Institute forFood Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD) and he is currently director ofthe Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) while also senior advisor to theSRI International Network and Resources Center (SRI-Rice) based in CIIFAD

AcknowledgementsThis paper updates a presentation made at a forum organized by theNorman Borlaug Foundation at the 2010 BioVision Alexandria InternationalConference held at the Alexandria Library in Egypt in April 2010 Inputs fromDr Radha Prasanna senior scientist in the Indian Agricultural ResearchInstitute New Delhi are gratefully acknowledged

Received 30 July 2012 Accepted 9 October 2012Published 1 December 2012

References1 Hayami Y Ruttan VW Agricultural Development An International Perspective

Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press 19852 UN Environmental Program The Environmental Food Crisis environmentrsquos

Role in Averting Future Food Crises Nairobi 2005 httpwwwgridanopublicationsrrfood-crisis

3 Pimentel D Techniques for Reducing Pesticides Environmental and EconomicBenefits Chichester UK John Wiley 1997

4 Chaboussou F Healthy Crops A New Agricultural Revolution Charnley UKJon Anderson Press 2004

5 Pingali PL Hossain M Gerpacio RV Asian Rice Bowls The Returning CrisisWallingford UK CAB International 1997

6 Dyson T World food trends and prospects to 2025 Proc Natl Acad Sci (US)1999 95929ndash5936

7 Uphoff N Agricultural futures What lies beyond lsquomodern agriculturersquoTrop Agric Assoc Newsletter 2007 2713ndash19 httpwwwbioscienceresourceorgcmsdocumentsTAA2020Bunting20Lecturepdf

8 Reichardt W Dobermann A George T Intensification of rice productionsystems opportunities and limits In Rice in the Global Food System Editedby Dowling NG Greenfield SM Fischer KS Los Bantildeos International RiceResearch Institute 1998127ndash144

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 11 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

9 Uphoff N Opportunities to achieve resource-conserving increases inagricultural productivity learning from the System of RiceIntensification (SRI) In New Life Sciences Future Prospects ndash Proceedingsof BioVision Alexandria 2010 Edited by Serageldin I Masood E El-FahamM El-Wakil M Alexandria Biblioteca Alexandrina 2011 httpwwwbibalexorgBVA2012attachmentsstaticpagesfilePublicationsBVA2010_Webpdf

10 Stoop WA Uphoff N Kassam A A review of agricultural research issuesraised by the system of rice intensification (SRI) from Madagascaropportunities for improving farming systems for resource-poor farmersAgric Syst 2002 71249ndash274

11 Uphoff N Kassam A Case study System of Rice Intensification InAgricultural Technologies for Developing Countries Final Report Annex 3Brussels European Parliament 2009

12 Hameed KA Mosa AKJ Jaber FA Irrigation water reduction using Systemof Rice Intensification (SRI) compared with conventional methods in IraqPaddy Water Envir 2011 9121ndash127

13 Lin XQ Zhu DF Chen HZ Cheng SH Uphoff N Effect of plant density andnitrogen fertilizer rates on grain yield and nitrogen uptake of hybrid rice(Oryza sativa L) J Agric Biotech amp Sust Dev 2009 144ndash53

14 Mishra A Salokhe VM Seedling characteristics and early growth oftransplanted rice under different water regimes Exper Agric 2008 441ndash19

15 Thakur A Uphoff N Antony E An assessment of physiological effects ofsystem of rice intensification (SRI) practices compared to recommendedrice cultivation practices in India Exper Agric 2010 4677ndash98

16 Zhao LM Wu LH Li YS Lu XH Zhu DF Uphoff N Influence of the Systemof Rice Intensification on rice yield and nitrogen and water useefficiency with different N application rates Exper Agric 2009 45275ndash286

17 Dobermann A A critical assessment of the system of rice intensification(SRI) Agric Syst 2004 79261ndash281

18 Sheehy JL Peng SB Dobermann A Mitchell PL Ferrer A Yang JC Zou YBZhong XH Huang JL Fantastic yields in the system of rice intensificationfact or fallacy Field Crops Res 2004 881ndash8

19 Sinclair TR Cassman KG Agronomic UFOs Field Crops Res 2004 889ndash1020 Stoop WA Kassam AH The SRI controversy a response Field Crops Res

2005 91357ndash36021 Uphoff N Comment to lsquoThe System of Rice Intensification time for an

empirical turnrsquo [NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences 57 (2011)217ndash224] NJAS Wageningen J Life Sci 2012 5953ndash60

22 Castillo GE Minh NL Pfeifer K Oxfam America learning from the Systemof Rice Intensification in Northern Vietnam In Scaling Up in AgricultureRural Development and Nutrition Edited by Washington DC InternationalFood Policy Research Institute 2012 Brief No 15

23 Thomas V Ramzi MA SRI contributions to rice production dealing withwater management constraints in northeastern Afghanistan Paddy WaterEnvir 2011 9101ndash109

24 Husain AM Chowhan G Barua P Razib Uddin AFM Ziaur Rahman ABMFinal Evaluation Report on Verification and Refinement of the System of RiceIntensification (SRI) Project in Selected Areas of Bangladesh (SP 36 02) DhakaBangladesh Report to IRRIBangladesh Programme from BRAC POSD SAFEand SyngentaBangladesh Ltd 2004

25 Anthofer J The potential of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) for povertyreduction in Cambodia Berlin Phnom Penh Summary of report prepared forGTZ 2004 httpwwwtropentagde2004abstractsfull399pdf

26 Tech C Ecological System of Rice Intensification (SRI) Impact Assessment(2001ndash2003) Phnom Penh Report of the Cambodian Center for Study andDevelopment in Agriculture (CEDAC) 2004

27 Xu XL Li XY Li H Socioeconomic impact analysis of SRI in China China RuralEconomics (in Chinese) 2006 English version available httpscholargooglecomscholar_urlhl=enampq=httpciifadcornelleduSRIcountrieschinacnciadengpdfampsa=Xampscisig=AAGBfm1lE2WtonKhHMxx_5aPAnSAuB5QXAampoi=scholarr

28 Zheng JG Zhou L Chi ZZ Jiang XL Agricultural water savings possiblethrough SRI for future water management in Sichuan China Chengdu paperfor Crop Research Institute Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences 2011httpwwwgooglecomhl=enampsclient=psy-abampq=zheng+Zhou+Chi+Jiang+Agricultural+Water+Savings+SRIampoq=zheng+Zhou+Chi+Jiang+Agricultural+Water+Savings+SRIampgs_l=hp3 12623924024415836616120302779425j35j5j1660les3B10 1cCDwSwJjZcg4amppbx=1ampbav=on2orr_gcr_pwr_qfampfp=7e9041a74f73c7fampbiw=1179ampbih=600 Data from SichuanProvincial Department of Agriculture

29 Sinha SK Talati J Productivity impacts of the system of riceintensification (SRI) A case study in West Bengal India Agric WaterManage 2007 8755ndash60

30 Satyanaryana A Thiyagarajan TM Uphoff N Opportunities for water savingwith higher yield from the system of rice intensification Irrig Sci 20072599ndash115

31 Sato S Uphoff N A review of on-farm evaluations of system of riceintensification methods in Eastern Indonesia CAB Reviews Perspectives inAgriculture Veterinary Science Nutrition and Natural Resources 2007 254

32 Ndiri JA Mati BM Home PG Odongo B Uphoff N Comparison of watersavings of paddy rice under System of Rice Intensification (SRI) growingrice in Mwea Kenya Intl J Curr Res Rev 2012 463ndash73

33 Nyamai M Mati BM Home PG Odongo B Wanjugo R Thuranira EGImproving crop productivity and water use efficiency in basin ricecultivation in Kenya through SRI Agric Engin Intl CIGR Journal 2012141ndash9

34 Styger E Attaher MA Guindo H Ibrahim H Diaty M Abba I Traore MApplication of system of rice intensification practices in the aridenvironment of the Timbuktu region in Mali PaddyWater Envir 20119137ndash144

35 Kabir H Uphoff N Results of disseminating the System of RiceIntensification with Farmer Field School methods in northern MyanmarExp Agric 2007 43463ndash476

36 Uprety R Economic analysis of System of Rice Intensification (SRI) methods inMorang district of Nepal main season 2005 Biratnagar Nepal Report fromthe District Agricultural Development Office Ministry of Agriculture 2006

37 FAO-EU FAO-EU Food Facility Programme after One and a Half Years inNepal Lalitpur Nepal FAO 2010

38 Khadka RB Project Completion Report of EU Food Facility Project DhangadhiKailali Nepal FAYA-Nepal 2011

39 Turmel MS Espinosa J Franco L Peacuterez C Hernaacutendez H Gonzaacutelez EFernaacutendez G Rojas C Saacutenchez D Fernaacutendez N Barrios M Whalen JK TurnerBL On-farm evaluation of a low-input rice production system in PanamaPaddy Water Envir 2011 9155ndash161

40 Namara R Bossio D Weligamage P Herath I The practice and effects ofthe system of rice intensification (SRI) in Sri Lanka Qtly J Intl Agric 2008475ndash23

41 Dung NT Minh LN System of Rice Intensification - Advancing Small Farmersin Mekong Region Oxfam America Report prepared by the Plant ProtectionDepartment (PPD)Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD)and East Asian Regional Office 2008

42 Uphoff N Anas I Rupela OP Thakur AK Thiyagarajan TM Learning aboutpositive plant-microbial interactions from the System of RiceIntensification (SRI) Aspects Appl Biol 2009 9829ndash54

43 Anas I Rupela OP Thiyagarajan TM Uphoff N A review of studies on SRIeffects on beneficial organisms in rice soil rhizospheres Paddy WaterEnvir 2011 953ndash64

44 Lin XQ Zhu DF Lin XJ Effects of water management and organicfertilization with SRI crop management practices on hybrid riceperformance and rhizosphere dynamics Paddy Water Envir 2011 933ndash39

45 Priyanka S Singh YV Prasanna R Shivay YS Influence of methods of cropestablishment and rice varieties on nutrient uptake and soil propertiesNew Delhi Research report for Indian Agricultural Research Institute underreview

46 Prasad A Going against the grain The system of rice intensification is nowbeing adapted to wheat ndash with similar good results Outlook Business NewDelhi 2008

47 ICRISAT-WWF Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative improving SugarcaneCultivation in India ndash Training Manual Patancheru Hyderabad IndiaICRISAT-WWF Dialog Project on Food Water and Environment Intl CropResearch Inst for Semi-Arid Tropics 2008

48 Diwakar MC Kumar A Verma A Uphoff N Report on the world-record SRIyield in kharif season 2011 Nalanda district Bihar state India Agric TodayNew Delhi 201253ndash56

49 Uphoff N Agroecological implications of the System of RiceIntensification (SRI) in Madagascar Envir Dev amp Sust 1999 1297ndash313

50 Cook G OrsquoConnor T Rice aplenty in Aceh Caritas Spring 2009 10ndash11 wwwcaritas-europeorgmoduleFileLibRiceaplentyinAcehpdf

51 Singh MP Organic rice cultivation transforming lives of Damoh farmersThe Hindu Nov 28 2011 httpwwwthehinducomsci-techagriculture

Uphoff Agriculture amp Food Security 2012 118 Page 12 of 12httpwwwagricultureandfoodsecuritycomcontent1118

article2668286ece52 Lyman J Lyman J Rasmei S Than YK Chantea L Rice production in the Family

Food Production project Phnom Penh Report of LDS Charities 2007 Posted onSRI website httpsriciifadcornelleducountriescambodiacamldsrpt07pdf

53 McDonald AJ Hobbs PR Riha SJ Does the System of Rice Intensificationoutperform conventional best management A synopsis of the empiricalrecord Field Crops Res 2006 9631ndash36

54 Uphoff N Stoop WA Kassam AH A critical assessment of a desk studycomparing crop production systems the example of the rsquosystem of riceintensificationrsquo vs lsquobest management practicersquo Field Crops Res 2007108109ndash114

55 Turnbaugh PJ Ley RE Mahady M Fraser-Liggett CM Knight R Gordon JIThe Human Microbiome Project Nature 2007 449804ndash810

56 Pinton R Varanini Z Nannipieri P The Rhizosphere Biochemistry and OrganicSubstances at the Soil-Plant Interface 2nd edition Boca Raton FL CRC Press2007

57 Mukerji KG Manoharachary C Singh J Microbial Activity in the RhizosphereBerlin Springer 2006

58 Chi F Shen SH Chang HP Jing YX Yanni YG Dazzo FB Ascendingmigration of endophytic rhizobia from roots to leaves inside rice plantsand assessment of benefits to rice growth physiology Appl EnvironMicrobiol 2005 717271ndash7278

59 Chi F Yang PF Han F Jing YX Shen SH Proteomic analysis of riceseedlings infected by Sinorhizobium meliloti 1021 Proteomics 2010101861ndash1874

60 Mattoo AK Abdel-Baki A Crop genetic responses to managementevidence of root-shoot communication In Biological Approaches toSustainable Soil Systems Edited by Uphoff N Ball A Fernandes ECM HerrenH Husson O Laing M Palm CA Pretty JN Sanchez PA Sanginga N Thies JEBoca Raton FL CRC Press 2006221ndash230

61 Rodriguez RJ Freeman DC McArthur ED Kim YO Redman RS Symbioticregulation of plant growth development and reproduction Communic ampIntegr Biol 2009 21ndash3

62 Uphoff N Chi F Dazzo FB Rodriguez RJ Soil fertility as a contingentrather than inherent characteristic Considering the contributions ofcrop-symbiotic soil biota In Principles of Sustainable Soil Management inAgroecosystems Edited by Lal R Stewart B Boca Raton FL Taylor amp Francis2012 in press

63 Khan Z Hassanali A Pickett J Managing polycropping to enhance soilsystem productivity a case study from Africa In Biological Approaches toSustainable Soil Systems Edited by Uphoff N Ball A Fernandes ECM HerrenH Husson O Laing M Palm CA Pretty JN Sanchez PA Sanginga N Thies JEBoca Raton FL CRC Press 2006575ndash586

64 Uphoff N Ball A Fernandes ECM Herren H Husson O Laing M Palm CAPretty JN Sanchez PA Sanginga N Thies JE Biological Approaches toSustainable Soil Systems Boca Raton FL CRC Press 2006

65 Laulanieacute H Le systegraveme de riziculture intensive Malgache Tropicultura1993 11110ndash114 reprinted in 2011 293 183ndash187 as English translation

66 Mishra A Uphoff N Morphological and physiological responses of riceroots and shoots to varying water regimes and soil microbial densitiesArch Agron Soil Sci 2012 581ndash27

67 Husson O Redox potential (Eh) and pH as drivers of plantsoilmicroorganism systems A transdisciplinary overview pointing tointegrative opportunities in agronomy Plant Soil httprdspringercomarticle101007s11104-012-1429-7

68 Priyanka S Singh YV Prasanna R Bhatia A Shivay YS Pattern of methaneemission and water productivity under different methods of rice cropestablishment Paddy Water Envir 2011 91ndash12

doi1011862048-7010-1-18Cite this article as Uphoff Supporting food security in the 21st centurythrough resource-conserving increases in agricultural productionAgriculture amp Food Security 2012 118

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