Direct Seeded Rice

Climatic Vulnerability

The climate of the district is sub-humid and is influenced to some extent by the proximity of the north and the existence of Terai swamps. The average annual rainfall is 1202.8 mm. About 90% of rainfall occurs during June to September. During monsoon surplus water is available recharging of ground water. The village Amwakash was affected by floods during 2011 (July ) resulting in low rice yields.

Interventions

Direct Seeded Rice:

Among different RCTs, direct seeding of rice is most appropriate particularly in waterlogged areas where rice-wheat is a predominant cropping system. Generally, manual transplanting of 21-35 days-old rice seedlings after 2–3 puddlings is common in the District. However, this system is labour intensive and requires huge tractor usage which often delays transplanting of paddy up to second week of August leading to poor tillering, grain formation and low yields of rice. To overcome these problems, direct seeded rice (DSR) was demonstrated on 20.2 ha of 97 farmers. Apart from this, cultivation ofimproved flood tolerant varieties ‘Rajsree’ and ‘Swarna Sub-1’ were also demonstrated. Direct seeded ‘Rajsree’ gave highest grain yield (47.5 q/ha) followed by ‘Swarna sub-1’ (29.3 q/ha) compared to local check ‘Motha’ (16.5 q/ha).

Zero till wheat cultivation:

Timely sowing of wheat is important for realizing higher yields. If the sowings are delayed beyond 25^th November, the

yield of wheat decreases by about 30 kg/ha/day. However, sowing of wheat was getting delayed in the village due to various reasons viz water logging due to flood, delay in rice harvesting, and time taken for land preparation. In general, farmers perform 2-4 tractor operations after harvesting of rice to prepare the field for wheat sowing and farmers

broadcast the seed and fertilizers in the field and mix the seed with the help of cultivator. Hence, demonstrations were conducted on zero-tillage wheat production for timely sowing, resource conservation and to enhance wheat productivity. Wheat was sown directly after the harvest of rice using a specially designed seed-cum-fertilizer drill on 18.5 ha involving 51 farmers. Zero tillage saved cost of field preparation by Rs 4000-4500/ha. In addition, line sowing of wheat by using seed drill was demonstrated on 25 ha of 105 farmers. Zero-till sowing of wheat gave a grain yield of 45.5 q/ha compared to line sowing of wheat (40.3 q/ha).

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