> Download the poster
LATEST NEWS !!
OPERATION SRI MADAGASCAR's team is in Madagascar
Several training in SRI and agrobiology
have been organized and financed thank to your donations:
>
See the pictures and soon the videos
> You can still download the SRI
Booklet english/french version [4Mo]
OPERATION SRI MADAGASCAR seeks to provide support to the Malagasy members of organization TEFY SAINA and to promote the spread of the System of Rice Intensification and agrobiology through press and informational materials as well as projects and partnerships.
TRAINING
and INTERNSHIP
Farmers, researchers, students
opportunities of training and internship in the different training centers in Madagascar
Download the trainings presentation
(in french) > pdf
or contact
us
:
srimadagascar@voila.fr
In 2008, rice production in Madagascar totalled some 3,000,000 metric tons, with an average yield of 2 metric tons per hectare, falling short of domestic consumption: every year, the country must import upwards of 200,000 metric tons of rice to meet demand. Madagascar routinely suffers from food shortages, a situation only exacerbated by the current spike in grain prices, while more than 80% of the population lives on less than one euro a day.
In the 1980s, Father Henri de Laulanié, a French agronomist working with peasant farmers in Madagascar, developed a method of rice cultivation that revolutionized traditional practices, now known as the SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION (SRI). SRI is structured around several simple techniques: early replanting of rice seedlings, replanting on a grid, partial drying of rice paddies. SRI is also entirely ORGANIC, which frees small farmers from the cycle of debt incurred by buying increasingly expensive chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
SRI is now used by farmers in over thirty countries, where it has been shown that these techniques can easily double or even triple yields even in the first year of harvest using SRI.
Though
there are 1,721,000 rice growers in Madagascar, only 65,000 of them
(about 3.5%) currently use SRI, due to a lack of diffusion of and training
in these techniques throughout the country. Over time, promoting SRI
would ensure that Madagascar becomes self-sufficient in rice production,
and could even begin to export.
Widespread adoption of the System of
Rice Intensification, or SRI, would amount to a development program
for Madagascar driven by Malagasy farmers.
Since 1990, TEFY SAINA (ATS) has
worked to train local rice growers in SRI.
Our malagasy parterns offer courses at several of their training centers in the following fields:
Agrobiology, reforestation, composting techniques, mulching, complementary
crops and crop rotation, biopesticides, ox-driven plowing, intensive
rice cultivation, water supply and irrigation, toolmaking, and ecological
construction.
THREATS ON RICE AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
NERICA (New Rice for Africa) is now grown in 4 regions of Madagascar, he represents a danger to the sovereignty of farmers.
Read the article: The NERICA rice, another trap for small producers in Africa. "The varieties of NERICA rice, obtained by hybridization between African and Asian rice, are currently classified as" miracle plant "[...] However, outside walls of laboratories, Nerica proves not up to the flashy advertising that is done ... "
Read the report of the NGO GRAIN
The land grab of rice threatens food sovereignty of farmers in the world
Read the report of the NGO GRAIN
Download the map of land grabbing
in the world
More info:
www.grain.org & www.viacampesina.org
"Genetically modified (GM) rice
, which proponents say is more resistant to pests and more satisfying to taste buds, may be edging toward the market in China."
Read more
Read the PELUM publication :
GMO's : Beyond facts&fiction
More info about PELUM
(Participatory Ecological Land Use Management) :
www.pelumrd.org
To know more about rice and GMO :
www.cban.ca
www.gmwatch.org
The threat of PESTICIDES
Read Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Africa informations :
PAN Africa flyer
www.pan-afrique.org
Zoma's primary mission is to help poor Malagasy peasant families to achieve the dream of a rural livelihood by giving them a year-long training in farming techniques. To this end, the organization runs a training center called CEFOTAM (Center for the Training and Transition of Migrant Farmers) 250 kilometers West of Antananarivo, in Tsiroanomandidy county. They also run a welcome center in Ankazobe, 150 kilometers North of the capital, where migrant families who have completed their training move to begin their lives as farmers on a 6,000 hectare government concession.
The Field School is a rolemodel for non-mechanized farming
and land management enacted on more than 25 hectares on the outskirts
of Antananarivo. It provides an example for creative land use and soil
improvement in a region with poor soil and a chaotic landscape as well
as water supply and irrigation for home and farm use and growing variety
of edible and medicinal plants organically. On a small scale, this site
offers a paradigm for sustainable development in the region, and is available
for research and training in many areas.
> TAF, 85 kilometers East of Antananarivo
TAF is a site for agricultural and eco-tourism that welcomes tourists in a family setting with an emphasis on traditional Malagasy culture. It offers training opportunities of two days, two weeks, or two months in organic gardening, rice cultivation, and animal husbandry.
> TATA (Young Pillars of a Rural World) 25km of Tananarive
The headquarters of TATA are the center of vermiculture (raising earthworms) for all of Madagascar. They breed and sell Eisenia foetida earthworms, the high-quality compost which makes this species of worm famous, and various biopesticides, as well as offering training in agrobiology and reforestation.
> TAOEZAKA I ("Courageous Undertaking") in the heart of Fianarantsoa
Research center and builder's workshop for 'adaptive technologies'--simple items for the household and for schools, as well as varied pieces of agricultural equipment--all made using materials cheaply and widely available in Madagascar. Taoezaka I specializes in equipment for composting, gardening, water pumps and irrigation, and tools adapted for SRI.
> TAOEZAKA II 20 kilometers north of Antananarivo
This is ATS's headquarters for development, demonstration, and popular education in SRI and agrobiology. It is a reference for rural technology of the home and the kitchen as well as for agrobiology techniques. The site has an extensive library specialized in related fields as well as prototypes of innovative equipment for housekeeping and cottage industries as well as agriculture and rice cultivation. Taoezaka II offers practical courses in twelve modules:
Coordination and facilitating, environment, water, agrobiology, SRI and grains, craftsmanship for men and women, ovens and stoves, nutrition, alternative medecine, animal husbandry, conservation, and canning and food processing.
> LAULANIE GREEN UNIVERSITY Ambanja, Region of Diana and Antanannarivo
Laulanié is an ecological university devoted to agriculture and ecotourism offering 'training for trainers' (Baccalaureat + two years or equivalent) in agriculture, companion agriculture courses for students and for peasant farmers, training in rural village-based or ecotourism, and a course in Malagasy cuisine privileging healthy eating and local ingredients. LGU seeks to ensure an education that unites diet and health with the principles of sustainable agriculture.
