Agroecological and Socioeconomic Significance of Different Rice Establishment Methods

Transplanting of rice seedling on the puddle land is the principal system of rice cultivation.Water scarcity and labour shortage imposed a serious threat to the sustainability of rice culture under this popular method.In response to the increased labour scarcity and cost in Asia, many temperate countries switched to machine transplanting and tropical countries adopted wet direct seeding.This switch from puddle transplanting to other system substantially reduced the manual labour requirement in rice culture but contributed a little to the water saving.Recently developed dry direct seeded technology is efficient in reducing both labour and water requirement in rice culture.Wet direct seeding requires puddling of land while puddling is avoided in dry direct seeding.Dry direct seeded rice system contributes a lot to the reduction of greenhouse gas emission and arsenic accumulation.Therefore, considering the agro-climatic situation of the region, the appropriate rice establishment methods should be adopted for sustaining productivity with the minimum use of water and labour and also to protect health and environment.