Food & Water Savings

"The SRI method for growing rice could save hundreds of billions of cubic metres of water while increasing food security." From World Wildlife Foundation International, More Rice with Less Water: The System of Rice Intensification

SRI addresses some of the most important challenges we face this century – namely to feed several billion more people with dwindling land and water resources and without further degrading the planet's environment.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, almost one- third of the world's population depends on rice and its products for 60-70% of their daily calories! Consumption of milled rice has increased 40% in the last 30 years and demand is expected to increase another 30-40% by 2030.

In Asia, where most rice is grown and eaten, about 84% of water withdrawal is for agriculture, mostly in flooded rice. However, water scarcity is having an increasingly significant impact on agriculture. The United Nations estimates about one-third of the world's population lives in regions that experience water scarcity and that this will double by 2050.

In their publication, More Rice with Less Water, WWF International reports that in the world's 'rice bowls' — particularly China and India — the scarcity of water is acute, with competing demands on fresh water, and concludes that, "the larger objective is to scale up SRI as a method that can effectively address the global water crisis."

Links

NPR's Living on Earth, "Growing Rice Debt Free." Authored by Beth Hoffman, a student of Michael Pollen. We introduced Beth to SRI last fall before her trip to Orissa. This feature puts SRI in a larger social and agricultural context and shows how SRI gives farmers a new option.

NPR recently featured a story detailing some of the problems in India created by the so- called "Green Revolution." SRI represents a possible solution to these problems.

• India's Farming 'Revolution' Heading For Collapse
• 'Green Revolution' Trapping India's Farmers In Debt

BBC correspondent Richard Black reported August 2009 on a major NASA study that predicts severe water shortages in India, in part due to unsustainable water demands for irrigated rice cultivation.

• India's water use 'unsustainable'