The Next Green Revolution (This Time Without Fossil Fuels) facts
(PARAPHRASED) The previous world record rice yield was held by China at 19 tons per hectare. "...Uphoff went to Madagascar in 1983 and saw the success of SRI for himself: farmers whose previous yields averaged two tonnes per hectare were harvesting eight tonnes." "There are now an estimated four to five million farmers using SRI worldwide, with governments in China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam promoting it." "Yield estimates showed a 91 percent increase for unirrigated plots over usual methods in rain-fed areas, and an 82 percent increase for irrigated areas. The method's popularity was apparent in Bihar: the pilot project expanded from 415 farmers, mostly women, to 15,808 the following year." "Similar experiments in Mali the following year showed less striking results. Still, obtaining a 10 percent higher yield with a 94 percent reduction in seed (10 kilograms/hectare [kg/ha] versus 170 kg/ha), a 40 percent reduction in labor, and a 30 percent reduction in water requirements encouraged farmers to continue with their experiments."
Source: Jonathan Latham, "The Next Green Revolution (This Time Without Fossil Fuels)," Solutions Journal, March-April 2013, Volume 4, Issue 2. http://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/node/22521 [verified 4/15/14]