Why Direct Seeding of Rice matters

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Last Updated07/05/2022

The Punjab government recently announced a Rs 1,500 incentive per acre for farmers opting for Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR), which is known for saving water.
Last year, 18% (5.62 lakh hectares) of the total rice area in the state was under DSR against the government's target of bringing 10 lakh hectares under it.

It is a method under which 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.
In this water is replaced by real chemical herbicides and farmers have to only level their land and give one pre-sowing irrigation.
The Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana has developed a ‘Lucky Seed Drill’ that can both sow seeds and simultaneously spray herbicides to control weeds.

In transplanting paddy, farmers prepare nurseries where the paddy seeds are first sown and raised into young plants.
The nursery seedbed is 5-10% of the area to be transplanted. These seedlings are then uprooted and replanted 25-35 days later in the puddled field.

The government is promoting DSR to conserve 10 to 15 per cent of irrigation water as compared to the puddle transplanted rice.
In Punjab, 32% area is under the long duration (around 158 days) of paddy varieties, and the rest comes under paddy varieties that take 120 to 140 days to grow.
On an average 3,900 to 4,000 litres of water is required to grow one kg of rice in the state.
The promotion of DSR will lead to the conservation of groundwater, therefore, reducing power consumption and saving farmers from a labour shortage.

DSR technique can help save 15% to 20% of water. In some cases, water-saving can reach 22% to 23%.
- With DSR,15-18 irrigation rounds are required against 25 to 27 irrigation rounds inthe traditional method.
It can solve the labour shortage problem because like the traditional method it does not require a paddy nursery and transplantation of a 30-day old paddy nursery into the main puddled field.
- With DSR, paddy seeds are sown directly with the machine.
It can help in groundwater recharge as it prevents the development of hard crust just beneath the plough layer due to puddled transplanting and it matures 7-10 days earlier than puddle transplanted crop, therefore giving more time for management of paddy straw.
According to research, yield, after DSR, is one to two quintals per acre higher than puddled transplanted rice.
Reduce methane emissions due to a shorter flooding period and decreased soil disturbance compared to transplanting rice seedlings.

The main issue is the availability of herbicides.
The seed requirement for DSR is also higher than transplanting.
Land levelling is compulsory in DSR, which increases the cost.
In the DSR technique plants have to come out properly before the monsoon rains arrive, early sowing is required.
The DSR method is not suitable for certain types of soil and in such fields only transplanting methods work.
Farmers must not sow it in the light-textured soil as this technique is suitable for medium to heavy textured soils including sandy loam, loam, clay loam, and silt loam which account for around 80% area of the state.
It should not be cultivated in sandy and loamy sand as these soils suffer from severe iron deficiency, and there is a higher weed problem in it.
DSR should be avoided in fields which are under crops other than rice (like cotton, maize, and sugarcane) in previous years as * DSR in these soils is likely to suffer more from iron deficiency and weed problems.

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