Weeds – Journal of the Asian-Pacific Weed Science Society
| Volume |
Issue |
Publication year |
Page No |
Type of article |
|
3 |
2 |
2021 |
30-48 |
Perspective |
Direct-Seeded Rice (DSR) in India: New opportunities for Rice Production and Weed management in postCOVID-19 pandemic period
N. T. Yaduraju, A. N. Rao, M. S. Bhullar, J. S. Gill and R. K. Malik
Email:
nyaduraju@gmail.com
Address:
Director (Retired), ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research (DWR), Mysore-570020, India
Keywords:
Rice, Direct-seeded rice, Labor migration, COVID-19, Weed management
Abstract:
In India, rice is predominantly grown as puddled transplanted rice (PTR) under irrigated or assured rainfall conditions. The share of groundwater in net irrigated area, as compared to the area under surface irrigation, is more than 60% at present. The over-exploitation of groundwater through the explosion of tube wells has raised sustainability issues. India's Central Groundwater Board has warned of critically low groundwater availability by 2025. Rice cultivation under PTR is labour and energy-intensive. The rising costs of labour and energy in India is making PTR less profitable. PTR is also not very environment-friendly due to its relatively higher methane emissions. Due to the above concerns, the shift of rice cultivation to direct-seeding (DSR) has been well researched and developed in India. The technology has also been actively promoted and disseminated for farmers to adopt across many Indian states. The advantages of the DSR system can be obtained only by alleviating the significant constraints, including weed problems and issues related to crop nutrition. The research carried out at different agro-ecological conditions in India has amply proved that the adoption of improved DSR technologies results in several advantages over PTR. The benefits include savings in labour (40–45%), water (30– 40%), fuel/energy (60–70%), and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper, we briefly discuss the historical aspects of DSR in India, the advantages of DSR, the reasons for inadequate adoption of DSR during the pre-pandemic period, the farmers' adoption of DSR during the pandemic making the crisis an opportunity. We also discuss the potential and research/extension needs for further upscaling DSR in India during the post-pandemic period.