Adoption Status of Direct Seeded Rice Technology by the Farmers of Punjab

Direct-seeded rice (DSR) is a possible alternative to conventional puddled transplantedrice, where rice crop is seeded directly in non-puddled fields. The study was conducted toascertain the adoption status of recommended practices of DSR. Personal interviews wereconducted to collect data from randomly selected 210 farmers from three districtsrepresenting different agro-climatic regions of Punjab. Study revealed that selected farmershad adopted DSR on 49.20 per cent of their total area under paddy cultivation. Slightlyhigher number of selected farmers had adopted Tar-Wattar, a new technique of DSR overdry soil method. Only 18.52 per cent respondents had applied first irrigation as perrecommendations of Tar-Wattar method, whereas majority (67.59%) had applied firstirrigation before 21 days. 26.67 per cent farmers had adopted most suitable variety PR-126 and sown it at recommended time. However, in case of other varieties, majority offarmers did not follow recommended time of sowing. A smaller number of farmers haveapplied zinc, iron and sulphur fertilizers to ameliorate micro nutrient deficiencies. Averageyield of others varieties and PR 126 were found to be nearly identical, but due to lessercost of cultivation in DSR as compared to transplanted rice, adopter farmers’ fetched highernet return.

Osmolyte-induced water deficit stress mitigation during panicle initiation stage in transplanted rice (Oryza sativa L.)

A field experiment was conducted to observe the osmolyte-induced water deficit stress mitigation during the panicle initiation stage in transplanted rice (Oryza sativa L. cv. BRRI dhan72). At the panicle initiation stage, plants were simulated with four levels of water regimes viz., well-irrigated (D0), water deficit for 5 d (D1), 10 d (D2) and 15 d (D3). Plants were treated with or without 10 mM of proline (Pro) and trehalose (Tre) as foliar spray started at mid-vegetative stage and continued till the end of stress period. Results revealed that water deficit stress drastically reduced most of the plant morpho-physiological attributes while other yield contributing characters were also affected due to prolonged water deficit stress. However, exogenous application of osmolytes like Pro and Tre significantly increased all those morphological, physiological and yield contributing parameters. Foliar addition of osmolytes concomitantly decreased the number of non-effective tillers hill-1 and the number of unfilled grain panicle-1 under water stress condition. Although both the osmolytes performed well under multiple duration of drought stress, the application of 10 mM Pro markedly improved all growth and yield contributing parameters under D1 water deficit stress compared to other stress durations. Hence, it may be concluded that the use of osmolytes would be a prospective remedy against moderate water deficit stress in transplanted rice production.

Conservation agriculture for smallholder farmers in rainfed and irrigated systems in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain: lessons learned.

Conservation Agriculture (CA), which delivers multiple benefits for crop cultivation, is becoming increasingly popular worldwide. However, CA is not a single, ready-made or simple technology that can be adopted everywhere without necessary farm-level refinement. The CA practitioners may need to incorporate changes in practices and each needs a few years of experience to fully learn how to optimize the technology on a particular crop on each farm. Implementation of CA is challenging in resource-limited, intensively cropped and rice-based smallholder farms. This chapter is a reflection on lessons learned during the last two decades of research, farmers' adoption and service providers' (LSP) feedback on CA practice in rainfed and irrigated systems where farmers grow three crops per year including at least one transplanted rice crop. The researchers review smallholder farmers and LSP affordable and preferred CA planters, and the performance of CA in crop establishment and management, weed management, role and involvement of farmers' groups, farm level benefits, rice and upland crops. Case studies are also presented on the benefits of CA practice including resources optimization, long-term trends of crop yield and profit margin, soil organic carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas (GHG) implications. These lessons may be useful for new practitioners, extensionists, researchers, teachers, students and policy planners to implement CA in smallholder regions considering food security, soil health and livelihoods and their contribution to mitigation of global warming.

Planning rice cultivation in a large plot agricultural system

This research aimed to study the approach of the community toward the decision to grow rice and economic crops, including appropriate resource allocation for use on a farm under a large plot agricultural system. The study areas were in Phan district, Chiang Rai province, Thailand, and the data were collected from a sampling of 400 field agriculturalists. The method used was to develop a mathematical model for growing crops with multi-objectives and in multi-periods, together with an agriculturist representative and experts in multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM). This was to prioritize the importance of alternative crops and find the appropriate allocation of the resources to achieve the targeted goal. The results showed that agriculturists prioritized most toward the criteria for growing Japanese rice with a weight of 0.179 Kg., followed by transplanted rice, transplanted glutinous rice, garlic, sown paddy rice, and sown glutinous paddy rice, respectively. The study’s results also showed that the price fluctuation of the crop products resulted in more use of land and labor in order to increase the production to compensate for the low price, and this also resulted in the higher opportunity cost of growing transplanted rice. Therefore, growing transplanted rice during in season planting was considered the most effective way, while during the off season, either garlic or Japanese rice could be grown. A collective pattern for planning for using resources together in large plot agricultural areas, together with a clear marketing target would bring about effective use of the resources and reduce the risk in revenue from the fluctuation in prices and uncertainty of yields from drought. Moreover, technology development to solve the problem of the lack of labor would be deemed an important approach toward the enhancement of the competitiveness of agriculturists in the future as well.

Direct Seeded Rice and its Prospects in Nepal: A Review

Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) is an alternative cultivation technique to the conventional Transplanted Rice (TPR). In this method, seeds are directly sown to the field without the necessity of nursery raising and transplanting. DSR can generally be divided into dry-DSR (sowing dry seeds in dry soil), wet-DSR (sowing pre-germinated seeds in moist soil) and water-seeding (sowing dry or pre-germinated seeds in standing water). This helps in saving water alongside the labour and results in early harvest due to quick crop establishment. DSR is proved to be sustainable and eco-friendly since it emits less methane than in TPR. However, there are few constraints associated with DSR such as weed infestation, crop lodging and nutrient loss. If these major issues are fixed, DSR can result in greater economic returns as compared to TPR. In absence of puddling, the soil structure can be maintained which leads to greater yields of succeeding crops. This technique has been successfully practiced in many countries like Srilanka, Malaysia and USA. In developing nations like Nepal, irrigation and labour constraints can be tackled by adopting direct-seeding for rice cultivation.

Evaluation of Florpyrauxifen-Benzyl Herbicides for Control on Common Weeds in Transplanted Rice

The research to test the effectiveness of the herbicide Florpyrauxifen-Benzylin in controlling weeds in rice was carried out in Sragen, Central Java. March to August 2021. The herbicides tested are: T1) Florpyrauxifen-Benzyl 400 ml/ha, T2) Florpyrauxifen-Benzyl 600 ml/ha, T3) Florpyrauxifen-Benzyl 800 ml/ha, T4) Florpyrauxifen-Benzyl 1000ml/ha, T5) Aryloxyphenoxy propionate 800 ml/ha, T6) Penoxsulam 800 ml/ha, T7) Natrium Byspiribac 300 ml/ha T8) Metsulfuron Methyl, T9) Hand Weeding and T10) Untreated. The herbicides were applied with the help of a knapsack sprayer by using a T-jet nozzle. The calibration of the knapsack sprayer was done by spraying on a non-experimental area. The volume of water used for spray was 300 L per ha. The results showed that the application of florpyrauxifen-benzyl in various doses did not show toxicity to rice plants. application of florpyrauxifen-benzyl starting at a dose of 600 ml/ha had the same effectiveness in controlling weeds as companion herbicides. At the end of the study, E. crus-galli and L. chinensis still seemed to dominate all plots in all herbicide applications.

Effect of Planting Techniques and Nutrient Management Options on Crop Productivity and Soil Health of Wet Rice (Oryza sativa L) in Typic Ustochrept Soils

A two years field experiment was carried out in sandy loam soil during rainy (Kharif) seasons in 2019-2020 at CRC farm of sardar vallabhbhai patel university of agricultural & technology, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh to evaluate the various Planting techniques and integrated nutrient management on yield and soil health of rice (Oryza sativa L.) under rice- wheat copping system. The treatments comprised of two Planting techniques i.e., E1-Conventional puddled transplanted rice (CT- TPR), E2- Wide bed Transplanted rice (W Bed-TPR) and Nine Nutrient management practices {N1- Control, N2- 100% RDF + ZnSO4 25 kg ha-1, N3- 125% RDN + ZnSO4 25 kg ha-1, N4- STCR based NPK application + ZnSO4 25 kg ha-1, N5- N2+ FYM (5 t ha-1), N6- N2+ FYM (5 t ha-1) + PSB (5 kg ha-1)+ Azotobactor 20 kg ha-1, N7- 75% RDN + FYM (5 t ha-1) + ZnSO4 25 kg ha-1, N8-75% RDN + FYM (5 t ha-1) + PSB (5 kg ha-1) + Azotobactor 20 kg ha-1 + ZnSO4 25 kg ha-1, N9- Organics Practices @ FYM (30 t ha-1)+PSB (5 kg ha-1) + Azotobactor 20 kg ha-1 + ZnSO4 25 kg ha-1} are laid down in Factorial Randomized block design and replicated thrice. The results indicated that among the different Planting techniques (PTs), conventional puddled transplanted rice (E1, CT-TPR) was recorded significantly higher grain yield (40.4 & 41.3 q ha-1), straw yield (62.7 & 63.8 q ha-1), NPK content and uptake and also improved soil health status ie., available NPK, organic carbon and other physical properties i.e, Bulk density, EC, pH in soil than wide bed transplanted rice (E2, W Bed-TPR) during both years of kharif 2019 & 2020 respectively. Among the nutrient management practices, the N6 (100% RDF + ZnSO4 25 kg ha-1 + FYM (5 t ha-1) + PSB (5 kg ha-1)+ Azotobactor 20 kg ha-1 ) treatment produced significantly higher grain yield (49.0 & 50.2 q ha-1), straw yield (81.2 & 82.8 q ha-1), NPK content and uptake, and available NPK organic carbon in soil than the other treatments, which were comparable to the N3 (125% RDN + ZnSO4 25 kg ha-1) treatment and the lowest in the control treatment N1, respectively. Thus, the results suggest that inclusion of inorganic fertilizer along with organic manure (FYM) enhanced the rice yield Therefore, application of conventional puddled transplanted rice (E2, CT-TPR) along with N6 (100% RDF + ZnSO4 25 kg ha-1 + FYM (5 t ha-1) + PSB (5 kg ha-1)+ Azotobactor 20 kg ha-1 ) found beneficial to increase productivity and soil health of rice crop.