Plot and Soil Preparation
 
Each village assembly selected 5 farmers to participate in the evaluation. Villagers and Africare technicians discussed plot selection. Proximity to water source and field accessibility were the main criteria.
 
We recommended a SRI plot size of 1/8 hectare (approximately 3/10 of an acre), about a third of the farmer’s land. The control plot of the same size is adjacent to the SRI plot. Final decision remained with the farmers, who all followed the  recommendations with only slight variations.
 
Early to Mid-June, 2008
Engineers at Work!  
 
Marking plot boundaries by naked eye and using handheld hoes, farmers lay out SRI and control plots on an irrigation perimeter that had been fallow for some years. Horogoungou village, June 24, 2008.
Tractor Plowing
 
Traditionally, farmers do not plow their land, but irrigate a plot and transplant the rice seedlings directly the following day. Where the soils are hard, farmers use a stick to make a planting hole.
 
Since 2006, some villages in the region pay for a tractor to plow their land, but the results are not very satisfactory. Done early in the season, on dry and hard soils, the uneven plowing creates deep furrows and untouched ridges (pictures 2 and 3 below). Without additional leveling of the soil surface, soil conditions for the rice crop are inconsistent (picture 3: freshly transplanted field).  
SRI Recommendations
 
Based on the above analysis, we recommend that the SRI farmers plow after pre-irrigation or after the first rains, and hand-plow after pre-irrigation where the plots are small. If plowing is properly done, it automatically contributes to land leveling, creates small and friable soil “chunks”, and reduces the labor costs needed for additional leveling.  
Hamidou Guindo, Africare technical supervisor, appreciates the good soil texture of Ibrahim Hamidou’s plot, who pre-irrigated and hand plowed his SRI plot. (Hara-Hara village).
After uneven plowing by tractor, villagers are breaking up the big soil chunks and working on leveling the field in Asseydou Alhassane’s SRI plot, Hara-Hara village.