Direct-seeded rice culture in Sri Lanka: Lessons from farmers

By W. Weerakoon, M. M. P. Mutunayake, C. Bandara, Adusumilli Narayana Rao, D. C. Bhandari, J. Ladha. 2011

138 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract About 95% of the rice grown in Sri Lanka is direct-seeded (wet- and dry-seeding). The average rough rice yield in irrigated predominantly direct-seeded dry zone (DZ) is about 5.0 t ha−1and in the wet zone (WZ) it is about 3.3 t ha−1. However the average realizable yield in DZ and WZ are 8 t ha−1 and 5 t ha−1 respectively. A survey was conducted to understand the cultural practices, farmers’ perceptions and the reasons for the yield gap in direct-seeded rice culture in Sri Lanka. Farmers’ seed rate ranged from 87 to 220 kg ha−1 for intermediate bold-type varieties and from 71 to 176 kg ha−1 for varieties with short round grains. About 90% of the farmers in the DZ and the intermediate zone (IZ) consider both yield potential and duration as criteria in selecting a variety. Among the farmers surveyed, only 21% of the farmers in the DZ, 13% of the farmers in the IZ, and 29% of the farmers in the WZ adhered to the recommended method of basal fertilizer application. Farmers did not adhere to the correct timing of fertilizer application. More than 50% of the cost for rice farming goes to labor, followed by cost of inputs in all climatic zones. Farmers reported that the most important production constraint for direct-seeded rice in the DZ and IZ is the non availability of reliable labor followed by soil problems and weeds. While in the WZ, it is the soil problems specially iron toxicity followed by lower soil fertility. The survey revealed that smaller land holding size, non adherence to the optimum time of farm activity initiation, less efficient use of rain water, higher seed rate and higher cost of production are a few reasons for the existing yield gap. Location-specific technologies for different agro-ecological zones of Sri Lanka should be developed to reduce the cost of production and to increase resource-use efficiency and should be transferred to the farmers to achieve sustainable optimum direct-seeded rice yields.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Plant Science, Soil Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2f4e5bcb3b0b9c467a5cc0910b095f2494693a30

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

1. J. Pretty
2. Z. Bharucha

In Plant Science

1. Nadeem Akbar
2. M. Ali
3. S. Singh
4. J. Pretty
5. K. Jabran
6. Z. Bharucha

In Soil Science

1. J. Pretty
2. Z. Bharucha

Citations in the corpus

• Weed management improves yield and quality of direct seeded rice (2011, background): “Direct seeding of rice is an alternative option to cope with the problems of water and labor scarcity associated with conventionally flooded rice (Weerakoon et al. 2011).”
• Weed management in direct-seeded rice (2016, background): “Wet-DSR is primarily done under labour shortage situation, and is currently practiced in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, and Sri Lanka (Pandey and Velasco 2002, Weerakoon et al. 2011)”
• Sustainable intensification in agricultural systems. (2014, background): “In Sri Lanka, some 95 % of all rice grown is direct seeded under either wet or dry seeding (Weerakoon et al., 2011).”