Direct seeding helps maintaining crop residue on the soil surface and so builds soil organic matter that feeds soil microbial activity resulting in healthy soil and improved nutrient exchange capacity. The method has been gradually replaced with transplanting since the green revolution in the late sixties, though direct seeding is better for soil health. I wonder why farmers are not using it now as it a environmentally friendly method? Is it due to lack of information, low yield or another reason?
In the tropical region, I gues it is very dificult to manage adequately rice straw in a continuous rice system (two or thre crop in a row). In the temperate region, farmes has to level land before rice seeding because rice straw makes more difficult to operate landplane equipment.
For tropical regions with sufficient number of farmers, direct seeding is less desirable because direct seeding requires more seed than transplanting rice and make it difficult to control pests, including weed control.
Seed rate is a good point and if you can not transplate rice in permanent flooding and also control of weeds is more difficult.
Not easy to control weeds especially weedy rice. Once weed control is difficult, it will intefere with the final grain yield. However, if you can control weed, there are nothing wrong with direct seeding.
Hi
1.labour intensive because controlling weed is most problematic in turn leads to 100 per cent yield loss.
2. nutrient availability is one more problem concerned to iron availability.
3. poor quality parameters particularly amylose content most important thing which decide quality of cooked rice
thanking you
Article Growth and Yield of Aerobic Rice as Influenced By Integrated...
Everybody may be rightly noting about weed infestation. I wonder about controlling weed with herbicide. Herbicide may not be as damaging to biodiversity as insecticides. Rice farmers of Bangladesh who applied DSR mentioned that the application of herbicides is effective. DSR is less expensive because it saves labour time compared to transplanting.
In my view, Indian farmers are not agreed to adopt direct seeding of rice due to their mindset and other factors like; they felt this method is not provide a good yield, machines / implements are not available etc.
Thanks Suneel for your information. Can you provide any empirical evidence of lower yield due only to DSR? I mean any reliable evidences?
In addition to agronomic issues related with weeds and nutrients already mentioned in intensive sytems, it depends on the climate, scale of production systems, availability of human resources and machinery, Fuel prices and the logistic.
In Uruguay conditions, where usually rice rotate with perennial pastures and high productivity is obtained by farmers (national average of 8 t/ha), almost all rice is direct seeded; with an increasing use of reduced and NO-TILLAGE practices due to fuel prices rise and the narrow seeding date.
Similar yields may be obtained with no-till compared with conventional tillage practices if pasture grazing is controlled under wet conditions in the previous winter.
If you think who is a good farmer in a country like Bangladesh, the answer will be like the farmer whose land is well cultivated and very clean! It means, DSR is not really popular in my country where more than 80% of total 160 million people live on rice cultivation only. Finally, expensive weed control and seasonal labor shortage including with improper information are the major reasons for why DSR is not widely practiced in Bangladesh.
Dear Mottaleb, it is important to maintain or improve the productivity of land; if sustainability and cleanness are substitutes then agricultural scientists must find artistic techniques of sustainable production. Also our definition of good farmers might need revision with proper recognition. If farmers produce more but at the same time maintain the quality of soil then they should be termed good farmers. I would be happy to know some examples, if available.
Dear Shaheen Akter, I am in full agreement with you, however, I have revealed that what is actually happening in the field. Clean and fully puddled land does not support the idea of conservation agriculture. Ironically, still we do believe that farmers with clean land (no crop residue in the field) and fully puddled are good farmers ! Thus I concluded that improper guidance and information are the major reasons why DSR is not popular in a country like Bangladesh.
After my personal interest with my colleagues, we started a moment among the farmer to motivate them for direct seeding of rice. In this Kharif season, where I am working (Mirzapur), new farmers are adopting direct seeding in rice.
Some orientations from my side: 1. I am positively shocked by the Uruguay-Info; Thanks for that input. It widens our "rice-horizon" !! 2. We can further look into the option of PRE-germinated seeds, which will further support the rice-growth in comparison to the weed-growth. There were encouraging info already decades ago. Thus: a factor PRO direct-seeding. 3. The enormous GHG-emissions from puddled / irrigated rice-fields will probably force world-agronomy towards more rain-fed rice-growing, in which direct-seeded and pre-germinated seeds will gain momentum. 4. My herbicide-experience with "propanil" was moderate; an ideal weed-killer against the most obnoxioux grasstype-weeds in humid rice (e.g. Echinocloa spp.) is probably a dream, esp. for the predominant small-holders of Asia and Africa....in addition to the ecological concerns. I assume, that it were the grass-type-weeds which triggered irrigated and transplanted rice-terraces in Asia some 5.000 years ago. 5. Most upland-rice in Africa --probably mio.s of ha ---is direct seeded....but with an enormous weed-control-burden. Only utmost early mechanical control was promising. 6. We need further smart, bright, clever agronomists (incl. 50% women) who identify and advance new eco-sound rice-cropping-systems, esp. for small-holders.
Nematode problem in ous (DSR rice practiced in West Bengal) was one of the major reason for area reduction.
Hi Bebukar,
Do you think that the Nematode problem is due to DSR or for another reason?
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