Productivity and economics of direct seeded rice in Cauvery delta zone of Nagapattinam district

Introduction

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the prime source of food for nearly half of the world's population. The problems faced by farmers were water scarcity, the farmers were facing the problem of acute labour shortage and hike in wage rate. Transplanting takes 240 to 250 man hr/ha, which is 25 percent of the total labour requirement of the rice crop (Ojha and Kwatra, 2014) [4] . The conventional method of rice growing is not only water-guzzling but also cumbersome and laborious. Rice transplanting requires 200-250 man-h ha-1, which is 25% of the total requirement for the rice crop production. The problem has further been intensified with the timely unavailability of labour (Kumar et al., 2015) [1] . Direct-seeding was cost-effective, which saves water through earlier rice crop establishment (Ladha et al., 2003; Singh et al., 2003) [2,7] . With alternate wetting and drying cycles in DSR, the crop was subjected to greater weed competition than transplanted rice because weeds emerge before or at the same time as the rice. Therefore, heavy weed infestation is a major problem in direct seeded rice and its success lies in effective weed control measures (Singh et al., 2003; Rao et al.,2007) [2,5] . This study was taken under Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernization Project (TN -IAMP). The World Bank Supported TN IAM (Irrigated Agriculture Modernisation) Project is a follow up of IAMWARM (Irrigated Agriculture Modernisation and Water-Bodies Restoration and Management) Project which has made significant development impacts in the state by modernising irrigation infrastructure, improving water use efficiency, enhancing yields and productivity of agriculture in a climate resilient production systems, diversification towards high value crops, strengthening the institutional reforms through Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) and Water Users Association (WUA). The IAM Project will bring the policy and institutional development achieved under IAMWARM project to a new level and will serve as the key vehicle for implementing the Tamil Nadu Government agenda in further enhancing water and agriculture productivity in a sub basin framework.

The objectives of the study were 1. To study the productivity of the direct seeded rice 2. To study the economics of the direct seeded rice. www.extensionjournal.com

Research methodology

The study was conducted in Nagapattinam district by purposive sampling technique. The bocks selected were Vedharanyam, Kilvelur and Nagapattinam. The total of 55 farmers were selected as beneficiaries for the study. The documentation of agronomic practices followed for the production of direct seeded rice has been done. An interview schedule was developed for collection of the data. The data was collected through personal survey method and tabulated analyzed and interpreted in terms of the objectives. The statistical tools used for the study were gross return, net return and BC ratio.

Gross return = Per acre gross returns were calculated based on the sample farmers' total income realized by output times the actual market prices in rupees. Gross income is the value of the main product plus by-products.

Net return = The net return was computed by subtracting to the total (cost c) from the gross return (eands.da.gov.in).

B:C ratio =

Results and Discussion

The results are tabulated under the following tables. Agronomic practices followed for the crop: From the table 3, it was observed that average expenditure was 34,890, gross return (Rs/ha) was 1,24,918, net return (Rs/ha) was 90,666 and B:C ratio was 3.5.

Conclusion

From the study, it has concluded that in direct seeded rice, lower water requirement and higher net income. In traditional method, B:C ratio will be 1.5, in case of direct seeded rice the B:C ratio was 3.5, which would be beneficial for the farmers. Direct seeding is a good alternative to transplanting as it is more economical and labour saving.

References

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