A new method of rice
farming
New Delhi: In Kerala, where paddy cultivation is going
out of favour because of labour problems and high costs,
the novel System of Rice Intensification’ (SRI) has
shown the potential to rehabilitate this crop.
This innovative technique ensures substantially higher
productivity and lower input use. The SRI system has, in
fact, proved its utility in many other regions as well,
spanning Sikkim in the north-east to Tamil Nadu in the
south.
The environment-friendly SRI method of growing rice
involves transplanting relatively young paddy seedlings
(eight to 10 days old instead of usual 20 days or more),
along with the soil that contains their roots. The
spacing between plants and rows is kept relatively wide
at around 25 cms to provide room for the robust growth
of both root and plant.
Plant nutrients are supplied largely through farm-yard
manure, supplemented with need-based fertiliser
applications. The most significant aspect of SRI is that
the fields are not kept submerged under water all the
time, as is usual in rice farming, but are allowed to
remain just wet without flooding.
The success of SRI technology in most places where it
has been tried in the past few years has led to its
promotion in a big way by Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs or
agricultural science centres) and other farm research
bodies under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research
(ICAR). What makes the SRI method an instant hit with
paddy growers is the saving of almost all key inputs
(water, seed, fertilisers, pesticides and labour), and a
perceptible spurt in crop productivity, which has, of
late, tended to stagnate at many places.
The saving on water, which is rapidly turning scarce in
most paddy-growing tracts, can be 30 to 40 per cent or
more; that of costly seeds over 50 per cent. The
reduction in the requirement of other inputs varies
according to field conditions.
Higher crop yields in SRI fields are attributed to
several factors. Since the seedlings are planted along
with the soil in which these are growing, it helps the
undisturbed roots to develop more profusely and enables
it to tap more nutrients from the soil. This, in turn,
facilitates a larger number of tillers (shoots) per
root-system, vigorous plant growth and, more
importantly, longer panicles (ear-heads) to accommodate
more grain per plant.
Moreover, the fact that the seedlings are planted in
wide-apart rows makes it easier for farmer to remove
weed and other rogue plants that normally compete with
the main crop for extracting nutrition from soil.
SRI fields also have a lower incidence of pests and
diseases, mainly on account of lower humidity because
the fields are not kept inundated. Overall crop yields
have been found to surge by anywhere between 20 and 100
per cent over those obtained with normal cultivation
practices.
The introduction of the SRI technique in different
states has shown that it works well with both
high-yielding varieties and local varieties of paddy. In
east Sikkim, for instance, where farmers tend to grow
only traditional varieties, such as Attey, Krishnabhog
and Dudhetulsi, the new method enabled farmers to bag,
on average, over 23 quintals of grain per hectare,
against 19.6 quintals with conventional method, in
kharif 2009-10. Farmers earned an average net return of
around Rs 25,550 per hectare, more than double the
production cost of Rs 10,950, according to sources in
the KVK run by the ICAR Research Complex for the
north-eastern hilly region, located in East Sikkim
district.
In the Nellanad area of Thiruvananthapuram, where the
SRI technology has been introduced by the local KVK in
collaboration with the Coimbatore-based Tamil Nadu
Agricultural University, farmers have reportedly reaped
a paddy harvest of nearly 7 tonnes per hectare, against
the state’s average crop productivity of 3 to 3.5 tonnes
a hectare. This has spurred the state government to
include the promotion of SRI in its overall agricultural
development policy. Kerala’s example can surely be
emulated elsewhere.
Similar encouraging results have been reported from
Tamil Nadu’s key paddy belt in the Mettur dam command
area where the uncertainty over the release of canal
water from this dam has been posing problems for paddy
growers. With the SRI technique, farmers can manage
comfortably with whatever water is available.
Courtesy: Business Standard |
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Pakissan.com;
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