PERMACULTURE
Permaculture is a system of agricultural and social design principles centered on simulating or directly utilizing the patterns and features observed in natural ecosystems . The term permaculture ( as a systematic method ) was first coined by David Holmgren , then a graduate student , and his professor , Bill Mollison , in 1978 . The word permaculture originally referred to " permanent agriculture " but was expanded to stand also for " permanent culture ", as it was understood that social aspects were integral to a truly sustainable system as inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka ’ s natural farming philosophy .
It has many branches that include but are not limited to ecological design , ecological engineering , environmental design , construction and integrated water resources management that develops sustainable architecture , regenerative and self-maintained habitat and agricultural systems modeled from natural ecosystems .
Even though it seems to be a good idea but it was a failure to produce the food enough for the exploding population . So it did not get such a wide acceptance .
System of Rice Intensification ( SRI )
The SRI methodology was synthesized in the early 1980s by Fr . Henri de Laulanié , S . J ., who came to Madagascar from France in 1961 and spent the next ( and last ) 34 years of his life working with Malagasy farmers to improve their agricultural systems , and particularly their rice production ,.
RI is a combination of several practices those include changes in nursery management , time of transplanting , water and weed management . Its different way of cultivating rice crop though the fundamental practices remain more or less same like in the conventional method ; it just emphasizes altering of certain agronomic practices of the conventional way of rice cultivation . All these new practices are together known as System of Rice Intensification ( SRI ). SRI is not a fixed package of technical specifications , but a system of production with four main components , viz ., soil fertility management , planting method , weed control and water ( irrigation ) management . Several field practices have been developed around these components .
Friends of Scientifica , October 2016