Much of the focus of agricultural improvement efforts in recent decades has been on modifying crops' genetic potential more than on improving cropping practices and production systems. Certainly, this genocentric approach has made significant contributions to food production in certain parts of the world under the banner of ''the Green Revolution.'' Yields have been raised substantially through varietal improvements and the increased use of inputs, including energy, agrochemicals, and delivering more water to crops through irrigation technology. In the past two decades, however, gains from this strategy have decelerated, with increasing economic and environmental costs of this input-dependent approach. Accordingly, there is reason to consider what can be accomplished by making optimizing changes in crops' growing environments both above ground and, especially, below ground. The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) developed in Madagascar has been showing that, by modifying crop, soil, water and nutrient management, it can under most of the circumstances evaluated thus far raise of the productivity of land, water, seeds, capital, and labor used for irrigated rice production. This article summarizes and reflects on the evidence provided in the preceding articles in this special issue. It draws on the scientific evaluations and field experience from Asia, Africa, and Latin America to offer some conclusions about the methodology known as SRI. Since this methodology is still evolving, no final assessment is possible. Much more research and evaluation remain to be done, and there will be further modifications and refinements since making adaptations to local conditions is regarded as intrinsic to the methodology. Further improvements in SRI will come from both researchers and farmers, with the latter considered as partners rather than simply adopters. This is consistent with SRI's representing a paradigm shift more than a fixed technology. The article identifies a number of areas for additional research that can probably improve factor productivity still further.
V~e r~c h. H.I.D. and Stoop. W.A.. 1990. Changes in West African Savanna agriculture In response to growlng population and continuing low rainfall. Agrrc Ecosv~tems Environ , 31: 115-132 Changes in v~llage farming systems, brought about by population growth and contlnulng low ra~ntall, are descr~bed for the three maln agro-ecolo@cal zones In Burkina Faso. The toposequential landuse and cropplng patterns were used as the basis for a model, whlch descr~bes the long. term ecolog~cal degradat~on from declining proportions of fallow land and over-cropping. The ~mplications of these changes for land tenure systems have also been considered. The results pro-v~d e a human and ecological setting for the current land degradation problem in the West Afr~can savanna and thereby ind~cate possible directions and pnonties for future agricultural research.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.