Jesuit scientist’s controversial rice system flowers in poor nations

• Nov 6, 2017

In the middle of the 20th century, a French Jesuit and missionary in Madagascar named Father Henri de Laulanié pioneered an approach to expanding rice crops called “System of Rice Intensification.” It’s derided by some others in the field as a collection of folk practices rather than real science, but it lives on, including in a Nepal project by “World Neighbors,” a non-profit organization devoted to promoting sustainable agriculture.