Building resilience to climate change induced extreme weather events through agriculture with a focus on the system of rice intensification

Rice is the one of the most important staple foods for more than half of the world’s population and Asia accounts for 90% of global rice consumption. In South Asia, in particular, the importance of rice agroecosystems cannot be understated. A major part of the population is dependent on rice cultivation for sustaining their livelihoods, in South Asia, with agriculture contributing nearly a quarter of the regional GDP. The current rice farming system however incurs heavy ecological costs, in the form of high water consumption (3000-5000 liters per kg of rice), greenhouse gas emissions (25% of global anthropogenic methane emissions), and the contamination of soil and water resources as a result of the liberal use of agrochemicals. Stagnating yields and increased dependence on external inputs makes the situation of small farmers more complicated and affects the socio-economic balance in rural areas. This can also push them away from the farm and in turn feed the increasing rush towards urban areas.

In this context, increasing on-farm biodiversity based on agroecological approaches can contribute to diversify the income and food of the small farmers, in addition to reducing the ecological costs and footprint of the food produced. System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is a set of practices that makes rice farmers less dependent on external inputs, lowers the water- and ecological-footprint of rice, and gives higher returns to the farmers. Under SRI, there is wider spacing between the rice plants, which are transplanted individually, and the paddies are not kept flooded. This gives rise to the possibility of introducing a cover crop between the rows. This has manifold benefits. Intercropping hinders the growth of weeds in between the rows, which otherwise poses a challenge in dry rice cultivation. Intercropping legumes also improves the nutrient uptake of the rice plants and also improves the physical characteristics of the rice plant, as already found in greenhouse studies.

The current research approaches the challenge of the negative externalities of current agricultural system from the perspective of ecological engineering, using agroecosystems as the field of study. This research aims to study the innovation of intercropping legumes with rice under System of Rice Intensification (SRI) under greenhouse chamber conditions, field conditions and also with modelling techniques.