27% more rice, same land: the promise of SRP cultivation in Java

Pak Madirun has been beaming these past few weeks. He smiles easily, and he greets his neighbours with a warmth that is hard to miss. And with good reason: the harvest from his 2.2-hectare rice field has just been completed, delivering remarkable results - especially on the 2,000 m² demonstration plot where he applied the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) standard.

He first learned about SRP in 2025 from Ida Rusmala, a field agricultural extension officer (PPL) working with the Gapoktan farmers' group association in Dempel Village, Ngawi Regency. Curious to see what the approach could bring, Pak Madirun joined the RiceSilience project implemented by Gapoktan with the support of Rikolto. He decided to start small, testing the method on just 2,000 m² of his land.

The outcome went far beyond what he had hoped for. The yields from the demonstration plot were clearly higher than those from his conventionally managed fields. "I'm very happy with the SRP cultivation," he says. "Next season, I want to use the jajar legowo model to plant my entire two hectares, because the results are exellent." He is already imagining what the next harvest could look like if he follows the same approach across his entire land.