Direct seeded rice
Also called: DSR · Topic: Land Use, Farming Systems and Cropping Seasons in India · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Direct-seeded rice (DSR) means sowing rice seed straight into the field. In the usual method, seedlings are first raised in a nursery and then transplanted into flooded, puddled fields. Puddling means churning wet soil into mud.
DSR skips the nursery and the flooding, so it saves a lot of water and labour. Fields are not kept under standing water, so less methane is released. Methane is a greenhouse gas given off by flooded paddy fields. This makes DSR useful in areas where groundwater is falling fast.
Example
In Punjab, where paddy has drained groundwater, the state pays farmers an incentive to adopt DSR instead of transplanting (verify current).
Don't confuse with
- System of Rice Intensification (SRI): SRI still transplants seedlings, though young single ones, with wide spacing and intermittent watering. DSR does not transplant at all.
- Zero tillage: this is mainly used to sow wheat into unploughed soil with the paddy residue left on it, for example with the Happy Seeder. It is not a way of sowing rice.
Related concepts
- Rice-wheat cropping system
- NPK ratio imbalance
- Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act 2009
- Zero tillage
- System of Rice Intensification
- Crop diversification
- Organic farming
- Sikkim organic state
- Natural farming
- Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana