Good Agricultural Practices
Training in new farming methods is essential to ensure good yields and high quality for export. This is undertaken by the 4 association field officers and by the 250 lead farmers (120 women and 130 men) who the AFOs train to do farmer to farmer work, supporting the trainings they give. This has played a key role in the development of the association as many of the successful farmers have learnt about rice farming from the association.
Importantly, farmers are taught how to plant rice. Traditionally, farmers plant rice seedling in bunches of 4-6 in planting stations 10 cms apart. This means that the plants are competing for nutrients and don’t form good root systems and consequently don’t produce so many seed-bearing shoots (tillers) and therefore less rice grains.
The answer is to plant only one seedling in each planting station and to plant them further apart – 22 cms in rows. This system, widely known as SRI, has proved very successful (though counter-intuitive) and is been strongly encouraged among KASFA members.
