EFFECT OF DIFFERENT CROP ESTABLISHMENT METHODS ON RICE (ORYZA SATIVA L.) GROWTH, PRODUCTIVITY AND PROFITABILITY- A REVIEW

Abstract

Rice is the staple food crop for more than half of the world’s population though it is cultivated in only 11% of the world’s cultivable land. It is a good source of energy, vitamins, minerals, amino-acids, anti-oxidants etc. Rice is commonly grown by transplanting seedling into the puddled soil, which is labour, water-, energy-intensive and is becoming less reliable to the resource-poor farmers. Also, repeated puddling deteriorates soil quality thus farmers are shifting the puddled transplanting method (TPR) to direct seeding method (DSR) as this method has emerged as feasible alternative establishment method to deal with the water and labour shortages. Though DSR method of rice cultivation suffers from lower grain yield compared to traditional transplanting method, the grain yield can be increased through proper weed control and crop management practices. Farmers can be benefitted by the less cost, higher yield, lower drudgery of transplanting and the quick maturity of DSR as they can plant succeeding crops early. System of Rice Intensification (SRI), a method emerged from Madagascar uses single and young seedlings at wider spacing and is one of the water-saving rice production technology which yield is nearly twice to that of conventional transplanting method. Recent studies and experiment should focus on the optimization of management practices for each method to improve rice growth and narrow the yield gap between them along with with the reduction of inputs (water and labour) costs. The main aim of this review article is to provide comparisions between different rice planting methods on the growth parameters, productivity and economics. Moreover, this article presents the different statistical relationship between the crop establishment methods of rice and its growth, productivity and economics.