80 days after nursery establishment, both SRI and control plots in the village of Hara Hara have filled in and show a dense green crop.
From a distance, it is difficult to perceive an obvious difference between them. But closer up, we can detect a major difference in the average number of tillers per plant.
In the first three villages -- Hara Hara, Horogoungou and Douegoussou -- each of the 15 SRI plots demonstrate superior tiller development compared to their respective control plots! A higher number of tillers/plant will most likely produce a higher number of panicles/plant and result in a higher yield, which was the case in our test last year.
Number of tillers per plant in the SRI and control plots
in Hara Hara, Horogoungou, and Douegoussou (average of 15 farmers)
Early September 2008
Tillering
SRI Timbuktu Blog
SRI Plot
Control Plot
Impact of urea on tiller development
The fields where plants were turning yellow, without added urea, were slower to develop than fields supplied with urea, where plants continued to develop tillers. The direct effect of urea on tiller development can be seen in the figure below.
Tiller development and time of application of urea (arrows) in the village of Hara Hara
for four farmers (SRI-1 to SRI-4)
(Same color arrow goes with same color curve)
Field yellowing began from 50 to 60 days after nursery establishment. SRI-1 and SRI-2 applied urea at 65 and 63 days, in time for the tillering to increase at the same rate. SRI-3 and SRI-4 were fertilized at 79 and 74 days respectively, about 20 days after the yellowing had started. Tiller development was clearly slower in both fields during that time. For SRI-4, tillering picked up after the urea application, for SRI-3 the effect is not yet visible. Our observations continue and it will be interesting to see if SRI-3 and SRI-4 will catch up with SRI-1 and SRI-2.
SRI-1: 45,9 tillers
Control-1: 30.7 tillers
SRI-4: 42.4 tillers
SRI-2: 45.7 tillers
Control-2: 32.3 tillers
Control-4: 27.9 tillers
Crop development in Hara Hara, 80 days after nursery establishment with tiller numbers per plant (average of 10 plants randomly selected in a straight line diagonally across the field) in SRI and control plots of three farmers. The field numbers in the photos correspond with field numbers in the graph below.
