Comprehensive and comparative analysis of various rice establishment methods: A review

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the most important staple food crop sustaining nearly two third of the world's population. However, rice cultivation faces several challenges, including the use of uncertified seeds, water scarcity, labor shortages and weed infestations. To address these issues, it is essential to adopt appropriate crop establishment methods that enhance growth and yield attributes of rice. In India rice is commonly grown by transplanting seedlings into the puddled soil. Although this method is widely practiced, it demands substantial labor, water, capital and energy making it less profitable which makes the farmers to shift towards direct-seeded rice (DSR). While DSR offers benefits in terms of labor and water savings, its adoption is hindered by poor seedling establishment and increased weed infestation. Under this situation, System of Rice Intensification (SRI) has emerged as a methodology that achieves higher seedling establishment rate (97.3 %) and also reduces water usage, enhancing weed control and increasing the total production. Despite of its advantages, SRI is laborious, requiring skilled workers for transplanting and it is time-consuming which delays the transplanting process. This situation highlights the need for mechanized rice transplanting, which facilitates timely planting and efficient crop establishment. Mechanization reduces labor, time, energy and production costs, ultimately enabling higher yields at a lower cost.