In Sri-Lanka, rice is grown under conditions of sub-optimal water and land availability. Thus, innovations such as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) that can increase productivity and save resources are needed. The objective of this study was to understand how SRI was implemented on farms in Sri-Lanka, and the consequences of changes in practices on: 1) input utilisation, 2) agronomic traits of rice, and 3) soil chemical properties. It was found that SRI farmers had made significant changes in their production systems: irrigations, seeding rates and herbicide usage were reduced by 24%, 85% and 95% respectively, and plant spacing was increased by 60%. Total inputs of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium were similar across SRI and conventional plots, but the source of nutrients was different. Yields were variable, but significantly higher on SRI farms, soil available potassium and phosphorus were increased, and SRI plants exhibited tolerance to low moisture stress.

The South Asian region has been transformed from a state of severe food shortages and starvation of large numbers of its people during 1960s, mainly due to the poor productivity of two of its staple cereals (Rice and wheat) to a state of surplus production. The main factors behind this transformation process, often characterized as a \u201cgreen revolution,\u201d were introduction of short-stature, fertilizer-responsive, lodging- and disease- resistant and high-yielding varieties; investments in irrigation infrastructure; increased use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides and fungicides, and government support through extension and micro-credit provisions (Singh, 1990; Ellis 1993). This \u2018green revolution,\u2019 or conventional system of production intensification, had negative social and environmental externalities (Vandana, 1991). Many smallholder farmers have suffered from decreased grain prices that resulted from the massive increase in production (Evenson and Gollin, 2003). Market price declines combined with increases in the relative prices of inputs required by the conventional intensification process have resulted in a very small return to investment for farmers. Thus economies of scale, and reliable access to large quantities of inputs including water, fertilizers and pesticides, play an important part in farm viability, and many smallholder farmers have not benefited from these decades of investment in agricultural development to the extent

expected (Lipton and Longhurst, 1989). Surplus grain production has in fact become a national problem; governments in India hold buffer stocks of wheat and rice at high expense, in order to maintain minimum prices (Roy, 2003). It is now widely accepted that although the \u2018green revolution\u2019 contributed greatly to global famine mitigation, the benefits of this system of productivity intensification have not been shared equally among farmers or regions (IFPRI, 2002). Negative environmental externalities of conventional intensification systems are now also widely appreciated. Salinization and waterlogging affects 42 million ha and 4.6 million ha of agricultural lands, respectively in south Asia1 (FAO, 1994), and pollution from agricultural chemicals threatens drinking water sources and degrades wetlands and other aquatic habitats (FAO, 2002).

Despite global surpluses, in many local cases in developing countries increasing production is still desirable on a local level primarily for food security in poor rural areas, but also to provide food for growing cities, and export markets. Technologies that can lower costs, are favourable to the environment, and save resources such as water, are needed to provide for these various needs in the context of social equity and poverty alleviation concerns. Often, however, further increases in the production of rice depend on intensification on existing rice lands, using existing or less water resources. In Sri Lanka, as in much of South Asia, most land resources suited to the production of rice have already been exploited, and most of the readily manageable water resources have been developed to irrigate paddy fields. Water availability is a growing constraint for paddy rice cultivation, as competition for other uses of the water increases (Barker et al., 2001). Although the dominant practice in rice production in Sri Lanka is flooded irrigation, 28.2% of the rice is grown under rainfed conditions with suboptimal water availability (Dhanapala, 2000). Paddy crop failure due to drought in Sri Lanka occurs for 2 to 3 years out of 20, and yield decrease due to water shortage is more common (Tennakoon, 1986). This situation is not unique to Sri Lanka. Worldwide 37.4% of the paddy rice is grown under low land and upland rainfed conditions, where water supplies are either not adequate today, or are predicted to be inadequate by 2025, and yields suffer from either regular or intermittent water shortages (IRRI, 1997). Thus in Sri Lanka, as elsewhere in the world, technologies or production systems that can stabilize or increase production and save resources such as water are needed. Many alternative production intensification systems are available. These include: low external-input sustainable agriculture, organic farming, ecological farming, intermitent irrigation, alternate wetting and drying, and aerobic rice cultivation (Barker et al., 2001). The system of rice intensification (SRI) shares one or more of the aspects of these methods of production, but very little