{"id":108121,"date":"2022-05-11T12:22:11","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T06:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/?p=108121"},"modified":"2022-05-11T14:36:08","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T09:06:08","slug":"why-direct-seeding-of-rice-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/why-direct-seeding-of-rice-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Direct Seeding of Rice Matters: UPSC Daily Important Topic | 11 May 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why Direct Seeding of Rice Matters-<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713The 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713Last 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25cf Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR):<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713It is a method under which pre-germinated seeds are directly drilled into the field by a tractor-powered machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713There is no nursery preparation or transplantation involved in this method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713In this water is replaced by real chemical herbicides and farmers have to only level their land and give one pre-sowing irrigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713The Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana has developed a \u2018Lucky Seed Drill\u2019 that can both sow seeds and simultaneously spray herbicides to control weeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25cf How is it different from the conventional method?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713In transplanting paddy, farmers prepare nurseries where the paddy seeds are first sown and raised into young plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713The 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25cf Need & Objective:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713The government is promoting DSR to conserve 10 to 15 per cent of irrigation water as compared to the puddle transplanted rice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713In 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713On an average 3,900 to 4,000 litres of water is required to grow one kg of rice in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713The promotion of DSR will lead to the conservation of groundwater, therefore, reducing power consumption and saving farmers from a labour shortage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25cf Advantages:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713DSR technique can help save 15% to 20% of water. In some cases, water-saving can reach 22% to 23%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713With DSR,15-18 irrigation rounds are required against 25 to 27 irrigation rounds inthe  traditional method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713It 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713With DSR, paddy seeds are sown directly with the machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713It 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713According to research, yield, after DSR, is one to two quintals per acre higher than puddled transplanted rice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713Reduce methane emissions due to a shorter flooding period and decreased soil disturbance compared to transplanting rice seedlings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25cf Disadvantages:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713The main issue is the availability of herbicides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713The seed requirement for DSR is also higher than transplanting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713Land levelling is compulsory in DSR, which increases the cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713In the DSR technique plants have to come out properly before the monsoon rains arrive, early sowing is required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713The DSR method is not suitable for certain types of soil and in such fields only transplanting methods work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713Farmers 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713It 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713DSR 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25cf Prelims take away:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713Direct seeding of Rice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713Rice – conditions for cultivation, area, Major producing States<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2713Cropping season<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

UPSC Daily Current Affairs Quiz \u2013 11 May 2022<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

UPSC Daily Static Quiz \u2013 11 May 2022<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why Direct Seeding of Rice Matters- \u2713The 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. \u2713Last year, 18% (5.62 lakh hectares) of the total rice area in the state was under DSR against the government’s target of bringing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":894,"featured_media":108122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1755],"tags":[1797],"class_list":["post-108121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-upsc-important-topics","tag-upsc-daily-important-topic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108121"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108137,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108121\/revisions\/108137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}