Abstract
Rainfed paddy production accounts for 30% of rice production in India and supports the nutrition of some of India’s poorest farmers. Agro-biodiversity hotspots in India such as Kollihills are rich in genetic variability of economically important staple crops such as rice, millets and tubers inhabited by tribal malayali farmers who largely depend on rice as food for their subsistence. Poor agronomic practices, inadequate water and fertilizer management in growing improved rice varieties resulted in a 50% yield reduction compared to yields obtained from improved package of practices of similar farming situation. Farmers participatory research conducted by M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, India and University of Alberta Canada, in rice paddy cultivation in two seasons of subsequent years 2012 and 2013 showed that adoption of appropriate technologies in rainfed low land paddy help small farmers reaching doubled their yield and income than control.
Highlights
Rice is the staple food crop for 60% of the world’s population
Agro-biodiversity hotspots in India such as Kollihills are rich in genetic variability of economically important staple crops such as rice, millets and tubers inhabited by tribal malayali farmers who largely depend on rice as food for their subsistence
Yield Enhancement experiment (YET) were conducted for both Kharif (JuneOctober) and Rabi season (December-April) paddy crop over a period of two years, under the APM project (Alleviating Poverty and Malnutrition in Agro Bio-diversity Hotspots), to study the potential changes in yield and income using improved scientific practices (IP) and traditional farmers practice (FP)
Summary
Rice is the staple food crop for 60% of the world’s population. Asia currently accounts for 60% of the global population, 92% of the world’s rice production and 90% of the global rice consumption [1]. India and Bangladesh are major rice-growing countries in the South Asia. In the past five decades, majority of the rice production increased because of yield growth, with harvested area increased from 50 million ha in the late 1960s to 60 million ha [3]. South Asia accounts 37% of the world rice area. 50% of the rice growing area in South Asia is rain fed [4]. The production gains can be achieved by bridging the yield gaps of rice with the currently available technologies [14]. Studies show that the accumulated stock of technologies for rainfed rice production was able to increase yield by 30% to 40%.
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