Organic System of Rice Intensification Development as an
Indonesia is the highest consumption per capita for rice in the world. Current issues as paddy area conversion, low land productivity under conventional rice farming, population growth rate, and climate change facing sustainable rice farming and rice self sufficiency in the future. Secondary data from appropriate sources were used to analyze an economic benefit and a mitigation strategy for mitigating climate change as well as the sustainability of organic SRI farming in Indonesia, descriptively. It is potentially to achieve sustainable rice farming as due to resulting in greater economic benefit, environmentally sound agricultural practices, socially acceptable, and culturally appropriate. It is also to be an important climate change mitigation strategy due to reducing in GHG emission by intermittent irrigation periodically and no continuously paddy straw burning and use organic fertilizer and pesticide. Increasing in SRI productivity by two times or more can ensure the rice self sufficiency and food security achievement. Based on these advantages, it is very important to extend organic SRI development in Indonesia.
Key words: organic SRI, climate change, sustainable self sufficiency
Introduction
Rice consumption per capita in Indonesia was 113.48 kg y-1. The rice consumption per capita
is highest while in Asia and the world were only 65 to 70 kg y-1and 64 kg y-1, respectively. Number of
population in Indonesia based on census 2010 was 237.6 million while paddy production in 2012 was
69.05 million tons (http://www.bps.go.id) or 43.39 million tons of rice for dry un-husked paddy to
rice conversion is 62.85 percent (http://www.thejakartapost.com). Indonesia should be surplus for rice
approximately 16.4 million tons, but in actually the number of import for rice was 750.000 tons in
2012 (http://indo.wsj.com) and rice stock of Indonesia by the end of 2012 was 2.276.505 tons
(http://www.metrotvnews.com).
Paddy area of Indonesia was decreased from 11,700,000 ha in 2001 (Hatcho, 2008) to
8,183,886 ha in 2010 (Suswono, 2012). Potential new land for paddy area will 7,313,988 ha which
consists of 524,775 ha of irrigated paddy field, 497,699 ha of bog paddy field and 6,316,844 ha of rain
fed paddy field (Suswono, 2012). Land productivity on wet land and rain fed rice farming in 2012
projection in 2025 will be 273,219,200 persons (http://www.datastatistik-indonesia.com). They will
require 49.33 million ton of paddy and 10.22 million hectares of harvested paddy area with
conventional rice production technology under green revolution.
Climate changes, in current century, can affect temperatures, precipitation, and weather
events which can in turn impact: rainfall, drought, storms, pests and disease, irrigation demands, crop
(paddy) growth and yields (Siregar, 2010). Changes in rainfall, drought or floods would therefore
affect agriculture and food productions. Climate change and agriculture are interrelated and climate
change over the next century may have significant effects on crop production and food availability
(Gahukar, 2009). Von Witzke (2008) stated that the interrelationship between the two is at least three
ways. First, agriculture is a victim of climate change. In Indonesia, during 1995-2005 flooded paddy
field amounted to 1.93 million hectares and drought paddy field amounted to 2.13 million hectares
where 0.33 million hectares could not be harvested. In 2006 itself, flooded and drought paddy field
was around 577 thousand hectares (190 thousand hectares could not be harvested). With an average
yield of five tons dried husk paddy per hectare, this is a loss of around 0.95 million tons (Siregar,
2010). The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report indicated that an overall
increase of 2°C in temperature and seven percent in rainfall would lead to an almost eight percent loss
in farm level net revenue (Gahukar, 2009). The IPCC also estimated that GDP in the developing and
less developed countries would decline by 1.4–3.0 percent due to climate change. Second, agriculture
in many countries is subsidized in order to produce bio-energy, considered by many to be very climate
friendly. And third, agriculture is the most important source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
This paper aims to evaluate economic benefit and potential sustainability and food self
sufficiency from organic SRI development and a strategy to climate change mitigation in Indonesia.
Methodology
Secondary data from appropriate sources were used to analyze an economic benefit and
potential sustainability as well as food self sufficiency achievement of the organic SRI development
Result and Discussion
Economic Benefit of SRI Method
The average yield of Indonesia paddy production under the conventional production
technology in 2012 was 5.13 t ha-1. The productivity would be improved significantly by
implementing organic SRI technology. Basically SRI is to apply combination of (a) transplanting of
young seedling (before 14 days age) at each hill with wider spacing (30 cm x 30 cm) to provide room
for profuse root and tiller growth by allowing the plant to monopolize both soil fertility and sunshine
energy and (b) intermittent irrigation periodically to keep the soil both moist and aerated during the
vegetative growth stage (Nippon Koei, 2010). SRI is a set of new ideas and environmentally friendly
practices yielding greater outputs and profits for farmers. Just by changing the way that rice plants,
soil, water, and nutrients are managed, paddy yields can be increased by 50-100% (7-10 t ha-1) or
more with: (a) less seed, only 10-20% of usual amounts because plant populations are greatly
reduced; (b) decreased irrigation water by 30-50% resulting in water saving that is useful to improve
irrigation efficiency and water productivity, as paddy is not continuously flooded; (c) lower cost of
production by 0-20% resulting in cost saving for farmer; (d) increased farm income by 25% or more
through cost saving and increased productivity; (e) shifting from semi-organic to organic SRI
gradually; and (f) no use of agro-chemicals for organic SRI method (GMU, n.d.; Nippon Koei, 2010).
The first evaluation of SRI in Indonesia were begun in the 1999 dry season by the Agency for
Agricultural Research and Development at its rice research center in Sukamandi, West Java. In 2001,
through farmer field school that was part of the national integrated pest management program in
Ciamis District, on-farm SRI was evaluated. Starting in 2002, basic SRI was introduced in Eastern
Region of Indonesia under Decentralized Irrigation System Improvement Project. In 2007, a wide of
2,848 ha has practiced organic SRI successfully mainly in West Java. In DISIMP scheme, basic SRI
areas have increased to 5,000 ha by the end of 2007 (Nippon Koei, 2010).
Average yield from applied SRI in Indonesia (West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara,
West Java, Yogyakarta, and East Java) was 10.47 t ha-1 (UGM, n.d; NOSC, 2013) while in China,
Cuba, Sri Lanka, and India the average yield by SRI was 18 t ha-1, 12 t ha-1, 13 t ha-1, and 18 t ha-1,
potentially to improve farmer’s income and to achieve rice self sufficiency and food security in
Indonesia.
Green House Gases (GHGs) Process from Agriculture System
Gahukar (2009) stated that agriculture is main contributor to increasing methane and nitrous
oxide concentration in the earth’s atmosphere. These gases prevent and absorb radiation from the
earth, thereby increasing the temperature of earth’s surface as well as the lower layers of the
atmosphere. Concentration of GHGs such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide
(N2O), etc. has been rising at a fairly rapid rate. With regard to CO2, Von Witzke (2008) indicated that
agriculture’s impact on climate change is usually fairly small. The studied showed around 60 percent
of GHGs emission come from fossil energy utilization (Widodo and Rahmarestia, 2008). Although
agriculture is an emitter of CO2 through the use of fossil fuels in tractors, combine harvested and other
farm machinery or the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, agriculture may also sequester considerable
amounts of CO2 in the soil. The main culprits are as laughing gas (N2O) and methane (CH4). Globally,
agriculture accounts for about 50 percent of all CH4 emissions and 70 percent of all N2O emission.
CH4 is 21 times as powerful as CO2 and N2O even 310 times as powerful as CO2.
Carbon dioxide uptake from earth’s atmosphere through photosynthesis and CO2 emission by
respiration, decomposition and organic matter burning. Nitrous oxide is essentially emitted from
nitrification and de-nitrification while methane emission through an-aerobic methanogenesis and
enteric fermentation on manure storage (Figure 1). Other gases, yielded from burning process are
NOx, NH3, NMVOC and CO as precursor (indirect emission) in GHGs formation. Methane (CH4) is
yielded by an-aerobic decomposition of organic matter in the flooded rice field and emitted through
crop. CH4 volume from irrigated rice field is influenced by biomass, irrigation type, organic and
an-organic fertilizing, soil type, temperature, and rice variety (Minami, 1995 in
http://www.deptan.go.id). Organic SRI method with best agriculture practices as paddy straw is not
continuously burned and paddy field is not continuously flooded but by intermittent irrigation as well
Conclusion and Recommendation
Organic SRI method is potentially to achieve sustainable rice farming in Indonesia due to it resulting in
greater economic benefit, environmentally sound agricultural practices, socially acceptable, and culturally
appropriate. It is also to be an important climate change mitigation strategy due to reducing in GHG emission by
intermittent irrigation periodically and no continuously paddy straw burning and use organic fertilizer and
pesticide. Increasing in SRI productivity by two times or more can ensure the rice self sufficiency and food
security achievement in Indonesia 2025.
Based on these advantages of organic SRI method, it is strongly recommended to all stakeholders are
continuously and successfully to support organic SRI development.
References
Gahukar, R.T. 2009. “Food security: the challenges of climate change and bioenergy”. CURRENT SCIENCE,
96 (1): 26-28
Hatcho, N. 2008. “Multi Functionalities of Paddy Fields and Multiple Uses of Agricultural Water”. Paper
presented in INWEPF 5th Steering Meeting and Symposium on Efficient and Sustainable Water Use to
Address Poverty Alleviation and Food Security. Bali, Indonesia, conducted on 13-15 November 2008.
http://www.bps.go.id. Berita Resmi Statistik No. 20/03/Th. XIV 1 March 2013, download on 31 January 2014. Figure 1. GHGs formation and emission in agriculture system
(http://www.deptan.go.id)
http://www.thejakartapost.com. New paddy to rice conversion rates and production estimation, download on 31
January 2014
http://indo.wsj.com. Rice import was drastically decreased (Impor beras turun drastis), download on 31 January
