The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is a way to grow rice. This plan for farming may grow more rice in the same field. It uses less water, takes more work, and uses younger seedlings spaced apart. SRI calls for hand weeding with special tools. It was started in 1983 by the French Jesuit Father Henri de Laulanié in Madagascar. Full testing and spread of the system throughout the rice growing parts of the world did not happen until some years later with the help of schools like Cornell University.