System of Rice Intensification: Lessons from the Field and Farmer Innovations - Wanpen Channard & Picharineeraksri Channard

Speaker Bio: Wanpen Channard and her daughter, Picharineeraksri, are farmers from Baan Tha Mai Village, Nakorn- sawan Provience of Thailand. Wanpen has exclusively been a rice farmer her whole life. As a rice farmer, she was able to support her daughter to earn a university degree. Now, Picharineeraksri is helping Wanpen with her business. Wanpen has practiced the SRI technique and has found it to have a low investment in regards to seedlings, with a high return. currently, Wanpen has moved from working solely as a farmer to becoming a business farmer. She now has a team to “dart” rice and her daughter produces single SRI seedlings to sell to other farmers.

Abstract: Wanpen and Picharineeraksri will talk about their “System of Rice Intensificaiton” (SRI) innovations and SRI best practices. Normally, Thai farmers use 25 - 30 kilograms of rice per rai (50 - 75 kg/acre). Wanpen found this cost of seedlings too expensive and so she tried a new innovation. In 2012, she grew the “Kow Khao 41” variety of rice with the SRI method at 16 x 30 centimeter spacing and with normal transplanting. She used 1.3 kg of seeds per rai (3.25 kg/ acre) and within forty days, the rice had produced 30 - 40 tillers.That year, Wanpen had a yield of 800 kg/rai (2 tons/acre) of rice. Later, she changed to a 30 x 30 cm spacing and utilized the darting method. She produced 1,000 kg of rice per rai (2.5 tons/acre). Wanpen and Picharineeraksri will talk about their story, how they made these decisions, and share opportunities for farmer-led SRI innovations.