Good news for growers who were contemplating giving up rice cultivation largely due to non-availability of labourers and scarcity of water.

The Direct Seeded Rice (DSR), whose successful experiments were witnessed by 86 farmers in Uttar Pradesh in the last kharif season, is now ready to reach more rice growers this year.

The institutions involved in the experiments have begun educating the farmers about this revolutionary agricultural practice, which is touted as being more suitable than transplanting rice.

In the transplanting method, seedlings are first raised in the seedbed before they are planted in the main field whereas in direct seeding, the seed is sown directly in the main field.

Direct seeding, thus, does not require much labour, needs less water and even advances the timing of sowing of rice crop in the kharif season, thereby allowing farmers to go for crop diversification.

Former head, South Asia Programme, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), R K Singh, who is at present apprising UP farmers about the benefits of DSR, says, “This season’s target is 250 farmers; in the next three years, we will try and bring three lakh farmers under DSR cultivation.”

Explaining the advantages of direct seeded rice, Singh says, “While rice is traditionally sown in May and June, which is the end of the dry season, wheat is grown after the monsoon in November or December after rice is harvested. The rice-wheat rotation is the principal cropping pattern of the Indo-Gangetic Plains and covers some 13.5 million hectares of agricultural land. About 3,000 to 4,000 litres of water is required to produce one kilo of rice, a cause for concern for farmers given the growing scarcity of water. Besides, there is also a dearth of labour, which is needed for the crop if it is sown in the manner of transplantation. The problem has led to many farmers shifting from growing rice to other crops. The need was felt for new ways to grow rice the same way as wheat is grown, without going in for nursery raising and transplanting.”

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