SRI: A new technique is helping Nepal farmers produce more rice with less water

For all her adult life, Shanti Rai, 37, only knew one way about how to plant rice. Every year around April, she and others from her village in Mandan Deupur in Karve used to assemble and plant saplings in a field full of water.

But, in 2016, things changed. Along with a small group of people from her village, she learnt a different way to plant saplings in her paddy field. The new system would reduce water requirements, increase land productivity, and promote less reliance on artificial fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, and other agrochemicals.