According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), India needs to increase its rice production by 2.5 million tonnes a year to meet its requirement in 2050. Rice output needs to increase by 92% from the current 140 million tonnes to meet the domestic demand in 2050. India can attain that to a great extent with 'the system of rice intensification (SRI)' developed 20 years ago by Father Henri de Laulanie, a Jesuit priest in Madagascar. The SRI process requires younger and fewer seedlings transplanted with wider spacing; and it doesn't need wasteful continuous flooding for irrigation. As claimed, SRI can increase rice yields to up to 15-20 tonnes per hectare. With India's average rice yield of 3.1 tonnes per hectare, SRI has the potential to bring about significant increase in rice productivity and production-that too with fewer inputs and at a lower cost. About 5,000 litres of water is required for just one kg of rice in the conventional 'flooding of the field' method. SRI uses 25-50% less water. Instead of flooding paddy fields, SRI requires only the root zones be kept moist. It also cuts seed requirement by an astonishing 95%. Fewer seedlings are planted, with more space between them. India cultivates rice on about 45 million hectares. One can calculates the benefits easily. Studies show that the net returns per hectare of rice farmers who adopted SRI was 67% higher than those who followed the conventional method. A farmer in Andhra Pradesh reported to achieve a rice yield of 17.3 tonnes per hectare. It may be an exception. But an increase of around 2 tonnes per hectare-64% more than current levels-is very much achievable. SRI has been included in the National Food Security Mission, which talks about increasing rice production by 10 million tonnes by 2012. As reported, "about 100,000 hectares is under SRI, which can be scaled up to 500,000 hectares in the next five years." SRI is said to have a presence in 130 of the 500 rice-growing districts. However, that's only 1.1% of the total rice area under cultivation. One can imagine the increase in the rice production, if switch is judiciously increased. Instead of imposing ban on basmati rice export, the government can work more seriously on this change over and providing better input including genuine fertilizers and better seeds. Why can't our scientists achieve what the Chinese can? The agricultural scientists "are trying this system for other crops, like wheat and madua (ragi)." Experiments with wheat in Dehradun saw yields increase from 18 quintals per hectare to 21 quintals per hectare. Similarly, traditional methods of growing sugarcane, another thirsty crop, require 10 tonnes of seed buds per hectare, SRI methods require only one tonne; as for the yield, it can increase from 65 tonnes per hectare to 144 tonnes.

In a family X, the land that was owned by one person up to 1970s has been divided into four parts, each getting about 15 bighas (local measure where 1.8 bighas is an acre). Today the four families depend on farming but in different ways: Uncle A with aunty is going strong even at the age of over 70. But the main work responsibility of the land is with the younger son, a postgraduate in agriculture and his wife. He owns a tractor and cultivates the whole holding with help of one permanent worker and engaging few more depending on need. A family of four is dependent on the farming. The elder son is in a good railway job. He lives in Vadodara with wife and three children studying in graduate courses. He hardly contributes to farming at home. But as per record, he and his family may be part of the rural population. Uncle B's son works in Kolkata in a reputed private firm at some junior position and takes care of a family of 7 including his mother, unmarried sister, and an unemployed brother. He leases his whole land in the village to tenants. He comes to collect the money once in a year in summer. The earning from the land makes his living comfortable. But he has to marry the sister that will require a lot of money for dowry. He may have to sell some land or take costly big loan against land. Uncle C's son, a Ph.D now, is not employed, but has bought a house in Varanasi (with money received by selling of some land of his share) and lives there. He had built a house in village too. He too leases the land to tenants either on cash that can be about Rs 6000 per bigha for a year or on fixed or flexible amount of grain harvested out of the land. His son is married too and has some frugal employment but lives with him. He has a son to be educated and a daughter to be married. Uncle D's son has lost most of his share of land because of the bad habits and today tills some land taken on lease from other landowners in the village for a meager living. He has his one son who takes cares of the family. But the family is in worst shape with just nominal earning.