A Grassroots Rice Revolution!

SRI stands for the System of Rice Intensification. And we call it the "One Seed Revolution" because SRI is a set of farming practices that optimize the potential and healthy growth of each individual rice seed and plant.

It's a "Revolution" for many reasons: innovation, global reach, and transformative benefits for people and plant. We're not the only ones who think SRI is revolutionary. India's premier business magazine, OutlookBusiness, featured SRI as "One of the 25 Ideas that Will Change Our World".

The SRI methodology was developed in the 1980s by Father Henri de Laulanié, trained agronomist and Jesuit priest, along with Malagasy colleagues and farmers. The methodology has spread from just a few hundred farmers in Madagascar to over 1.5 million smallholder farm families IN OVER 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

SRI has been largely grassroots driven, fueled by women and men farmers and the non-profit organizations (NGOs) who advocate for their welfare, like Oxfam, Africare, WWF and many dedicated local NGOs and individuals. The reason these farmers are so excited about SRI is because it represents an opportunity for more food, more money, better health, and more options – in short, for a way out of poverty.

We learned about SRI in 2005 from the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD), which has been promoting research, outreach and extension about SRI since the mid-1990s. They saw that many farmers using SRI methods were transitioning from not having enough rice to eat to rice surpluses. These surpluses are of high- quality, chemical-free traditional varieties, many with superior cooking and health properties. CIIFAD thought that developing in-country and foreign markets could be an opportunity to help some of the world's most marginalized farmers preserve both plant and cultural biodiversity, achieve better prices, adopt environmentally sound agricultural practices and bring consumers a healthier food.

We agree, and see SRI as a logical extension of our mission. We are pleased to offer three exceptional SRI-grown rices, and look forward to introducing more in the future.

Please read the additional pages in this section to learn more about this amazing set of methods that is transforming the rice-growing world.

You can also read what is being written about SRI:

• "Food on the Table and Savings on Hand" - Oxfam America
• "Food Revolution That Starts With Rice" - The New York Times