Direct Seeding of Rice

May 31, 2023

Amid challenges like delayed rainfall and shortage of labour, farmers in several leading rice-growing States are shifting to direct-seeding method.
Methods of planting rice
- Transplanting Paddy: In transplanting paddy, farmers prepare nurseries where the paddy seeds are first sown and raised into young plants.
- The nursery seed bed is 5-10% of the area to be transplanted.
- These seedlings are then uprooted and replanted 25-35 days later in the field with standing water.
- The standing water acts as herbicide and prevents growth of weeds by denying them oxygen in submerged stage.
- Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR): In DSR, the pre-germinated seeds are directly drilled into the field by a tractor-powered machine.
- There is no nursery preparation or transplantation involved in this method.
- Farmers have to only level their land and give one pre-sowing irrigation.
- In DSR as flooding of fields is not done during sowing, chemical herbicides are used to kill weeds.
Advantages of DSR
- Efficient, sustainable, and economically-viable rice production systems.
- No significant reduction of yield under optimal conditions.
- Conservation of water.
- Saving on labour costs.
- Reduce methane emissions due to a shorter flooding period and decreased soil disturbance compared to transplanting rice seedlings.
Challenges
- The seed requirement for DSR is also high, 8-10 kg/acre, compared to 4-5 kg/acre in transplanting.
- The sowing needs to be done timely so that the plants have come out properly before the monsoon rains arrive.
- Seeds exposed to birds and pests;
- weed management;
- higher risk of lodging, risk of poor or non-uniform crop establishment etc.