Received: 2nd February 2024; Accepted: 9th April, 2024

Abstract

Understanding  the  System  of  Rice  Intensification  (SRI)  begins  with  a  distinction  between  its  principles, which are general, and the practices that give effect to these principles when applied, which are and adapted for particular situations. This makes SRI more like a menu than a recipe. It is not something to be promoted by rote learning, glossing over the reasons for its principles and practices of SRI, but rather something that emerges from an understanding of agronomic processes. 

Put in simple straightforward terms, SRI management elicits the growth of more robust and more productive plants, i.e., phenotypes, from a given crop variety, i.e., genotype. Application of SRI’s principles and practices evokes the fuller expression of plants’ genetic potential than do most currently prevailing practices, such as high plant density, continuous flooding, and ignoring the contributions of the soil biota and the implications of profuse root growth. This paper enumerates and elucidates the agronomic principles and practices of SRI, considering how and why they achieve the effects that are widely and consistently observed.