Rice Today Special Supplement

8/9/2019 Rice Today Special Supplement

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Rice Today July-September 2012

Students troop to the middle

of a rice eld. With the sunat their backs, they listencarefully as someone tells them

about the rice crops planted in theeld. This is how they are introducedto a type of rice variety that couldwithstand an environment with lesswater. Eventually, these agriculturalstudents from a Philippine statecollege will learn more as they get tovisit the eld more often.

Such a scene is a picture of anoutdoor lecture about water-savingtechnologies such as the aerobic ricetechnology and the alternate weingand drying irrigation method thatare used in riceproduction.

The aerobicrice technologyinvolves growing arice variety usingless water than theregular amount.The aerobic rice

variety produceshigh yields andis best adopted inrainfed and uplandareas—land that isgenerally productiveonly during the rainyseason and is left idlein the dry season.

Alternateweing and dryingis practiced by

by Rona Niña Mae Rojas

alternately ooding rice elds and

allowing them to dry for a few days.With this technology, no losses incrop harvest were shown whencompared to elds using continuousooding methods and, in general, itcan reduce water use by 15–30%. Insome irrigated production systemsin the country, the use of alternateweing and drying helped reducetension among farmers because theyare assured that water is sucient forall of them. Moreover, their farmingcosts decreased, which meant somesavings in money.

The International Rice ResearchInstitute (IRRI), through the Irrigated

Rice Research Consortium (I

introduced these technologiehelp farmers cope with limiteresources for rice productiontechnologies have favorable rin reducing water requiremedecreasing input costs.

With these technologies beneting farmers, it is only that the knowledge and prac be passed on to a new generyoung agriculturists.

Rice goes to schoolDr. Junel Soriano, an agricultengineer and professor at theAgricultural State College (B

the Philipponce workeNational IrrAdministraproposed thintegrationsaving techin selected in undergra

and graduaacademic pon agricultuidea was desound and approved bBASC coun

Thus, DSoriano wainclude techsuch as aerorice and alt

Lesson plan:

Students in the Philippines learn how to save water in planting rice

DR. JUNEL Soriano, professor at the Bulacan Agricultural State College,Philippines, teaches his students about the principles and benefits ofwater-saving technologies.

B U L A C A N A

G R I C U L T U R A L S T A T E

C O L L E G E


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eing and drying and they are nowtegrated in the curriculum.

In La Union Province, Donariano Marcos Memorial Stateniversity (DMMMSU) studentsnduct eld and laboratory activitiesaerobic rice production systems tomplete their course requirements.

Now, Dr. Soriano is workingosely with Dr. Marina Sabado,professor of agriculture inMMMSU, to present a proposal toe university’s academic council tolly and ocially integrate water-ving technologies into the schoolrriculum.

ore benefitshe collaboration of stateniversities and colleges withRI and government institutionsconducting research andssemination activities on water-ving technologies reaped

nintended rewards.BASC was allocated more funds

cause its Aerobic Rice Research,evelopment, and Extensionogram caught the aention of

ore institutions and agencies thatanted to be involved in the researc h,velopment, and extension ofrobic rice.

“With more funds, we were ableimprove the facilities of the Colleged hire more sta t hat the whole

ollege can benet from,” says Dr.riano.

The availability of additionalsources also meant a re-energizedmosphere for research.

would be included in the schools’instructional and extension materials.

In fact, BASC now has projectsin eight other provinces to continueits research on water-savingtechnologies and has demonstratedthe benets to students and farmersas well. “Soon,” says Dr. Soriano,“students will be able to learn moreon the use of mechanical tools for thedierent operations and practices inthe technologies, organic farmingpractices for aerobic rice technology,and weed management.”

Another teaching tool beingdeveloped, in coordination withthe IRRC, is a video documentationof farmers practicing alternateweing and drying and aerobicrice technology. These videos willshowcase the success stories offarmers from the dierent provinces.

“We will work with other statecolleges and universities in creatinga solid and unied proposal to fullyintegrate water-saving technologiesin academe, especially in instr uction,”says Dr. Soriano. “The IRRC plays astrong role by providing technicaland nancial support.”

Meanwhile, schools likeDMMMSU, BASC, and ISU willcontinue toward their goal ofeducating their st udents—the futureagriculturists—on the dierent waysto save water, a resource so valuablein today’s food production.

A unified approachDMMMSU and BASC haveinuenced other state colleges anduniversities such as Isabela StateUniversity (ISU) in following theirpath in water-saving technologyresearch, development, and extension.ISU developed its own program onaerobic rice tech nology, formulateda road map for the Cagayan Valleyregion, and has now implementedprojects in Isabela Province and insome parts of the region.

Dr. Soriano and Dr. Sabadoaim to continuously develop thetechnologies and get studentsmore involved in r esearch. Theyacknowledge the need to determinewhat aspects of the technologies needmore research. A ny new development

DR. JUNEL Soriano ( second from left ), together witharmers and technical staff from the Department of

Agriculture regional office, visit a site demonstratinghe use of water-saving technologies.

DEPARTMENT OF Agriculture technical staff and local officials from Lanao delNorte (in southern Philippines), where the Bulacan Agricultural State Collegehas a project for water-saving techonologies, take part in a field demonstrationof aerobic rice technology.

Rice Today April-June 2011

Consumers in Tamil Nadu, a

predominantly rice-growing

state in India, who preferred

millet grains, particularly nger

millet, for hundreds of years, have shifted

to rice because it is considered a status

symbol.

Rice is important and will continue

to play a vital role in food security for

millions of people in India. The future

of Indian food security and foreign

exchange through rice exports will also

largely depend on desired productionand productivity. Opportunities are great

for attaining high yield in rice through

proper agronomic management practices,

low-cost mechanization in seeding and

weeding, and suitable establishment

techniques. The need for increased

food production at prices affordable to

consumers and protable to farmers has

been a concern for all.

Tamil Nadu has been recently

dominated by the industrial sector

compared with other states. Rice

is grown in all of Tamil Nadu’s 30

districts comprising a total rice area of

2.05 million hectares. For example, in

Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts,

located in the northwestern agroclimatic

zone of Tamil Nadu (see map), rice is

the staple food crop. It is cultivated on

65,000 hectares in spite of a lack of water

and labor resources, the high cost of

cultivation, and less protability. These

two districts are situated near industrial

cities, which lure farm laborers with highwages and stipulated work hours.

Industrialization led to increased

labor migration to city areas and a shift

toward alternative rural employment,

and caused a severe farm labor shortage.

Consequently, it also increased the cost of

labor during peak farming operations such

as transplanting, weeding, and harvesting.

In Tamil Nadu, transplanting is

traditionally done only by women. The

task is labor-intensive and cumbersome.

The major farm activities such a

preparing and managing the nu

pulling out seedlings, transporti

distributing them to the main e

transplanting them consume 25–

the total cost of cultivation in tr

rice. Moreover, expansion of irr

area, the availability of short-du

high-yielding rice varieties, ava

of herbicides to control weeds, i

transplanting costs, and declinin

protability of rice production h

many farmers to shift from tranto direct seeding on puddled and

soils under irrigated conditions.

a drum seeder, a wetland implem

greatly helps the rice-farming c

by directly sowing germinated

in lines, in the eld.

The drum-seeding concept

developed and tested by the Int

Rice Research Institute (IRRI)

its plastic version was develope

Cantho Plastics in Vietnam. Its

Farmeget the

groovbac

by M

M . N . B U D H A R ( 2 )

Drum seeding finds its way

back to Tamil Nadu as farmers

learn how to control weeds

effectively and maximize

profits using the technology MR. CHAKRAVATHY decided seeder this year to sow his n


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4 Rice Today April-June 2011

odel was rened by the Tamil Nadu

gricultural University (TNAU) in

oimbatore, India. The Regional

groindustrial Development Cooperative

erala Ltd. (RAIDCO), in India, is the

thorized manufacturer of the drum

eder prescribed by TNAU.

The plastic drum seeder consists of

ur drums—each can hold 2 kilograms

seeds at a time. This eight-row drum

eder requires only 9 kilograms of

lling force to operate. Without the seed,

e machine weighs 8 kilograms. And, it

quires two persons to cover 1 hectare

d costs about US$88 for each un it.

The use of drum seeding in sowing

sprouted seeds in puddled elds has

ready been proven successful in many

untries such as Thailand, Vietnam (see

rumming up success on pages 22-27Rice Today Vol. 4, No. 2), Myanmar

ee Drum seeders pick up the beat in

yanmar on page 3 of Ripple Vol. 3, No.

, Bangladesh (see The direct approach

pages 12-18 of Rice Today Vol. 5,

o. 2), and the Indo-Gangetic Plains of

dia ( Direct seeding of rice gets warm

proval in the Indo-Gangetic Plain on

ge 11 of Ripple Vol. 1, No. 2). Farmers

Tamil Nadu have also accepted the

um-seeding technology because it

cuts labor and seed costs, speeds up the

planting process, provides higher yields,

or at least yields similar to those of

transplanted rice, and is easy to operate.

In other words, farmers prot more.

Field experiments at the TNAU

Regional Research Station (RRS) in

Paiyur and on-farm trials conducted

in villages of Krishnagiri District

compared traditional transplanted rice

with direct-seeded rice through drum

seeding in 2000. Even then, the results

indicated that drum seeding had a higher

or equivalent yield advantage compared

with transplanting. Plus, it reduced crop

duration by 7–10 days.

Watch out for the weeds

Although farmers had been quick to

adopt drum seeding, they forgot to

control weeds—either manually or

chemically—during the early stage of

crop growth despite the recommendation

of researchers and extension workers.

Consequently, weeds invaded the crop

and reduced yields drastically. Farmers

also had to shell out extra money to

remove the weeds. Because of this, the

drum-seeding technology was perceived

as no longer viable.

Reportedly, weeds can reduce yields

by as much as 50–60% in direct-seeded

rice. To prevent this loss, early control of

Tamil Nadu

INDIA

N

ò

A YOUNG farmer demonstratesthe use of a plastic drum seeder.


weeds is imperative. Although manual

weeding can control weeds effectively,

it is difcult, time-consuming, and

costly—especially when labor resources

are not readily available.

In the past, farmers failed to shift

from transplanting to direct seeding

effectively because they lacked

knowledge of weed management using

herbicides. Fear of handling herbicides,

lack of skill in spraying, lack of

knowledge in using an optimum dose, and

unavailability of wide-spectrum herbicide

to control diverse weed ora prevented

the success of drum-seeding technology.

Revival of drum-seeding technology

The key to successful direct seeding

on a large scale lies in the way farmers

manage their weeds and crops. Thus,

to revive the drum-seeding technologyand to respond to the needs of farmers,

experiments were once again conducted

in the Paiyur RRS. A study investigated

the effect of initial weeding, weeding

interval, and frequency of weeding by

mechanically using a cono weeder and

compared it with chemical and manual

weeding control in direct- or drum-

seeded puddled rice.

A study conducted in 2007 showed

that mechanical weeding and soil stirring

P. Gunasekaran, a small farmer in Annamaaipatti village in DharmapuriDistrict and a regular visitor to RRS in Paiyur, witnessed the success ofa 2-year experiment on drum seeding combined with weed controlmethods versus transplanting practices. He adopted drum seedingand mechanical weeding technology in his 0.4-hectare field. He andhis wife did the sowing, weeding, and spraying. Only for harvestingand threshing did he hire some labor. He proudly said that his cropyielded 40 bags (each bag weighs 75 kilograms) of moist-free roughrice—an amount never yet recorded in his rice-farming experience.Besides this record yield of 7.5 tons per hectare, he could reducecultivation expenses to a tune of US$76—which came from thetime saved in nursery establishment and management, lower seedrequirement (from 30 kilograms to only 10 kilograms of seed), lesslabor cost for transplanting, and less manual weeding cost. Most ofall, he felt happy just being relieved of the drudgery in putting upa nursery and managing it and transplanting along with laborers.Satisfied with the technology, he encouraged other farmers to adoptthis technology.

Another beneficiary of RRS is G. Ekambaram, a progressive ricefarmer and rice mill owner, who has adopted the latest technologiesin rice cultivation for the past 3 decades in Pothapuram villagenear Kaveripattinam town in Krishnagiri District. RRS scientists

usually conduct on-farm trials first in Mr. Ekambaram’s field for easytechnology dissemination. His paddy farm is situated in a rice beltwhere labor is scarce and costly and transplanting of seedlings isseldom done at the right time. This forced him to adopt drum-seedingtechnology. The first time he tried this technology with chemical

control of weeds wasduring the dry season of2000 in a smaller patch of0.14 hectare. However, thepreemergence herbicideapplied at 8 DAS did notcontrol many weeds,which caused damage tothe crop. So, he decidedto apply herbicidewith safener, which isa substance applied toreduce the effect of theherbicide on crop plants.In the wet season of 2000and 2002, he extendedthis technology to hisentire farm of one and ahalf hectares. The drumseeder combined with chemical control of weeds increased thincome of his rice crop by reducing the cost of cultivation. In 22006, because of a water shortage, nonavailability of herbicidsafener, and a lack of finances, he was not able to cultivate rice

During the wet season of 2007, he sowed his crop using a

seeder and adding mechanical weeding in his agronomic praIt was then that he was able to harvest a good yield and gain aprofit. Satisfied with the benefits derived from the drum-seedtechnology, he spread the news to other farmers. He encourato use mechanical weeders at the right time.

Gains in drum seeding

done at 10 days after sowing (DAS) and

subsequent weeding and stirring done

twice at an interval of 15 days were able

to control weeds effectively and had

maximized productivity and protability

in a drum-seeded eld.

During that time, even while the

experiment was in progress, many farmers

visited the experimental eld and saw

the success of the direct-seeded crop.

P. Gunasekaran, a farmer who lives 50

kilometers away from the experimental

station, became interested in the

technology and adopted it on his small

farm (see box for more on h is success

story). With the support of RRS, he and

his relatives were able to cultivate a

direct-seeded crop using a drum seeder on

half a hectare of his land. Many farmers

witnessed the practices adopted by Mr.

Gunasekaran and his relatives as wellas the progress of his crop. Hence, other

farmers became interested also. They

were then advised by the RRS scientists to

use mechanical weeding and stir the soil

at appropriate stages using a cono weeder,

which resulted in vigorous crop growth

and good yield. Later on, to celebrate

their successes, the farmers themselves

organized a eld day to share the

technology with other farmers in the area.

Through eld days, more and

more farmers adopted drum-see

technology. Because of the bene

such as a lower seed rate, no nur

no transplanting, no hand weed

less eld duration, the drum-see

technology regained the conde

of the farmers. The National Ba

Agriculture and Rural Developm

Chennai shares this condence i

technology by collaborating wit

in Paiyur to carry out a scheme f

2010-11, Drum seeding and mec

weeding for productivity, prota

and prosperity of rice farmers u

a Farmers’ Technology Transfer

with a budget outlay of $13,890

agricultural blocks of Krishnagi

in Tamil Nadu. The scheme prov

nancial support to conduct 20 f

eld demonstrations to compare

seeding with traditional transplaand to provide training to 500 fa

A drum seeder and cono weeder

been distributed for free to all fa

organizations for hands-on trials

hope that more farmers will ben

this simple yet effective technol

Dr. Budhar is professor of agro

the Regional Research Station,

Nadu Agricultural University, I

FARMER P. Gunasekaran hopes to rhis farm with the help of drum see


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W ith three major

reservoir-fedirrigation systemsoperating in the

ea, it’s easy to think that Bohol,

e of the biggest rice-growingeas in the Philippines’ Visayasgion, is free of water problemsr irrigated rice. Think again.

Despite these dams, the rice

rmers of Bohol have been strugglingirrigate their crops, for the simpleason that the province does notve enough water. Bohol has

hat is known as a Corona climate

pe IV, characterized by evenlystributed rainfall throughout thear. There is no clear-cut wet ory season, though there is a higher

kelihood of heavy showers fromovember to January. The averagenual rainfall is estimated at

around 1,600 millimeters per year.The three national irrigation

systems operating in Bohol, coveringa total area of 10,260 hectares, are

the Capayas Irrigation System inUbay (1,160 hectares), the BoholIrrigation System 1 (BIS 1; 4,960hectares), and the Bohol Irrigation

System 2 (BIS 2; 4,140 hectares).The Malinao Dam of BIS 1 in

Pilar, the Bayongan Dam of BIS 2 inSan Miguel, and the Capayas Damin Ubay are all reservoir-type dams.

However, Bayongan Dam, which wasconstructed under the Japan Bankfor International Cooperation (JBIC)loan program, was built in such a waythat it had to rely primarily on BIS1.

Water from Bayongan Dam will comemostly from the excess water owingfrom Malinao Dam. The technicalfunctionality of BIS 2 is therefore

very much dependent on the efcientoperation and management of BIS 1.

Since the start of operations in

1998, however, BIS 1 has performedpoorly because of inefcient wateruse. The dam has been beset byproblems—declining available water,

asynchronous farming activitiesresulting in wasteful use of water,and poorly maintained irrigationfacilities. All of these have, in turn,

affected farm productivity andcontributed to low farmer incomes.

A JBIC mission conducted inMarch 2005 reported that waterfrom BIS 1 failed to cover the

designated irrigation area and thatthe nonirrigated areas are mostlylocated farthest from the canals.

Usually, there is insufcient water available during the year’s

second cropping (November to April),especially for downstream farmers

who live farthest from the dam.This problem is aggravated by the

practice of unequal water distributionand unnecessary water use byfarmers who insist on continuous

ry by Meg Mondoñedo

otos by Raymond Jose Panaligan

water-saving technologies find their way to the province

of Bohol in the Philippines and prove to be a perfect

match for the region’s climate and irrigation systems

A PERFECT MATCH

E MALINAO DAM in Pilar, on the Philippinend of Bohol, has been operating since 1998has been unable to supply enough water to

gate its 4,960-hectare service area.

TWO BOYS paddle their way across the Malinao Dam.

IRRIGATED RICthe town of Ca



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oding to irrigate their rice crop.In the face of declining irrigated

ce production in Bohol since00, the National Irrigation

dministration (NIA) createdaction plan for the Bohol

tegrated Irrigation System.he plan focused on improvingater distribution equity and

ciency; improving operations;rengthening coordination amonge NIA, irrigators’ associationsroups of farmers who share

irrigation canal), and localvernment units; rehabilitating andgrading irrigation facilities; and

tablishing demonstration farmswater-saving technologies.

A major component of thisan was the implementation of aoject to improve the performance

irrigation systems and increaseater productivity. Thus, a water-

ving project team for Bohol wastablished, with NIA as the leadency. To achieve its goal, theoject made use of water-saving

chnologies developed by scientiststhe Irrigated Rice Research

onsortium (IRRC) Water-Savingorkgroup based at the Internationalce Research Institute (IRRI).

“After our initial success inrlac (see The big squeeze on pages-31 of Rice Today Vol. 7, No. 2),e national ofce of NIA got holdthe technologies,” says Ruben

mpayan, IRRI postdoctoral fellowd leader of the Water-Savingork Group. “Since Bohol didn’tve enough water to irrigate their

ce area, despite its three dams,IA decided to bring water-saving

technologies, specically alternate

wetting and drying (AWD), to Bohol.”Consequently, the introduction

of AWD (also called controlledirrigation) debunked the widespread

belief that rice has a continuous,insatiable thirst for water. In fact, rice

can be ooded to a lesser extent thanusual (to a depth of 3–5 centimetersinstead of up to 10 centimeters),allowed to dry to a degree, thenre-ooded, with this cycle repeated

throughout the season as long as thesoil remains ooded throughout theowering period. Up to a quarterless water is needed, there is no dropin yield, and farmers don’t need to

make any other major changes inthe way they manage their crop.

“Many farmers came to realizethat rice doesn’t need lots of water

throughout its life cycle,” says NIAEngineer Edmund Mendez. “They

saw rst-hand, from the demo plots,

that rice doesn’t have to be ooded allthe time. It only needs puddled waterduring the critical stages of growth.”

In Pilar, a municipality in the

province of Bohol, where the project was rst launched, water fromthe dams started to decline 3−4

years ago. Only upstream farmers(those near the main irrigation

canals) could get sufcient water,leaving downstream farmers

with almost nothing. Water fromthe dams was not enough toserve all the farmers’ elds.

Today, about 150 farmersin Pilar alone are using AWDto grow rice twice a year.

“We really saw the need for

AWD and aerobic rice technologies,”says Jardy Bolanio, head of a localfarmers’ group in Pilar. “Even during

FARMERS FROM CARMEN, Bohol,thresh their rice after harvesting.

IRRI WATER-SAVING researcherRuben Lampayan.

the rainy season, we still neededto save water in the reservoirs as

backup for drier days to come.”“So far, our yields using AWD

have been the same as those we getfrom growing rice in ooded elds,”he says. “However, weeds have beena minor problem. Since oodingcontrols weeds, AWD is more prone

to weed growth because of the drystages. But it can be solved easilythrough manual weeding. The

weed problem is nothing compared

with the water we save and theconsistent income we now get.”

AWD’s success didn’thappen overnight though. Withmany farmers’ resisting the

switch from ooded methods,NIA and its partners carriedout information campaigns,

farm-level demonstrations, andfarmers’ eld days where the

technology was introduced.Farmers were scared that

AWD might reduce their yieldand they would not earn as

much—but it didn’t happen.“There was no disadvantage from

using AWD,” says BIS SuperintendentOlympio Galagala, Jr., who alsofarms rice in Pilar. “Our yields

were the same, and, best of all,our water problem was solved.”

According to Dr. Lampayan, AWDin Bohol was adopted by farmers not

because they liked it. “It was adopted

because it was forced on them in a way, as a solution to the weaknesses

of the water deliver y systems,” heexplains. “Before the project wasimplemented, the NIA people triedto rotate the water in such as waythat everyone would get a fair share,

at least within an area served byone dam. AWD complemented that

water rotation scheme becausethe demand for water became

lower and farmers became less worried about their crops dyingif they didn’t get enough water.

“Farmers always thoughtthat the more water they

had, the more yield they would get. AWD proved this wrong. The farmers are happynot only because they don’t

worry about water anymore,

but also because life ismore harmonious—they nolonger compete for water.”

With more and more

farmers seeing the benetsof using AWD, the Boholexperience could be a potential

model for success of the WatSaving Work Group’s countrysites across Southeast Asia.

“There is so much potentin AWD because water scarci

is a real threat,” stresses Dr.Lampayan. “People are awarthe water problem, but they drealize its extent. Our next st

is to scale out and spread thetechnology to other problemaareas, not just in the Philippi

While the IRRC helps Bo with the water shortage prob

also recognizes the need to aother production constraintssoil fertility, labor, and posthlosses. Through the IRRC’s COutreach Program, initial eff

have been made to integrate A with other IRRC technologieoptimize rice farmers’ incom

As the number of Bohol

farmers who use AWD growsthe IRRC continues to searchfor the next perfect match.

CHILDREN PLAY near a pile of ricegrains in their backyard in Pilar, Bohol.

THE ENDANGERED Philippine tarsier(Tarsius syrichta), endemic to thesouthern Philippines, includingBohol, is one of the world’s smallestprimates.

NATIONAL IRRIGATION Adminis-tration Engineer Edmund Mendez.

PILAR FARMERS' group leader Jardy Bolanio.

BIS SUPERINTENDENT OlympioGalagala, Jr. is also a farmer.


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directThe

approach

ORY AND PHOTOS BY ADAM BARCLAY

To understand the importance of rice farming

to Bangladesh, look at the numbers. Thisdensely populated country—more crowdedthan any other on Earth bar city-statessuch as Singapore—has 146 million people.

ound 80 million of them rely on agriculture for theirelihood. Agriculture alone employs around two-irds of the labor force of almost 70 million and ricethe country’s most significant agricultural product,counting for more than three-quarters of total cropped

ea. Add to this the fact that the average Bangladeshiceives around three-quarters of his or her caloriesom rice and you begin to understand the grain’sgnificance. Further, in India and Bangladesh, theorest people spend up to half their income on rice.

hile India doesn’t rely on rice in the same way as it srtheastern neighbor, rice remains India’s single most

mportant agricultural product. Given India’s sheerumbers—its 1.1 billion people constitute almost one-

th of the world’s population—merely maintainingce productivity is not enough; as the populationes, India must produce more rice on less land.

A return to the ways of their

forefathers has seen Indian a nd

Bangladeshi rice farmers reduce

their need for water and address the

growing problem of labor shortages

The Indo-Gangetic Plains, running east fromnorthwestern India across to the Barind area of wBangladesh, are some of the most agriculturally itracts of land on the planet. Home to India’s rice-

cropping system, the plains are the most productarea in the country and vital to the food security oIndia. Infrastructure, such as irrigation, is relativdeveloped and many farmers have access to mechequipment including tractors and machine seeder

Despite these advances, farmers here face problemsuch as deteriorating soil health, rising costs, anddeclining productivity and labor availability. With

workable solutions, things are likely to get worse.

As you move east along the plains into easterIndia and then northwestern Bangladesh and theBarind Tract, the farm sizes and level of developm

tend to diminish. In the Barind, farms average lesthan 1 hectare in size, on which farmers do their

best to simply grow enough food for themselves a

their families. Rice farming here relies more heavon manual labor and simple tillage equipment.

Despite dramatic differences between farms end of the Indo-Gangetic Plains, farmers along thlength share several problems—two of which hav

implications for rice production and, by extension welfare and food security of many millions of peo

First, as people who traditionally made their working on farms are uprooting and moving to th

to find work in the developing urban and industrisectors, the availability of farm labor is decreasinparticularly during the peak periods of farm operand, consequently, becoming more and more exp

Second, and perhaps even more pressing, are

issues of water availability and cost. Farmers the wover are, of course, dependent on water. In Banglaand on the least developed farms of the Indo-GanPlains, farmers rely on monsoon rains. If the rainare too late or too little, farmers may not be able t

establish the crop and, even where they do, yieldsdecimated. At the other end of the plains, many fpump groundwater when and as needed but unlessomething changes soon, this cannot continue. W

tables are falling and, as global fuel prices continusteep climb of the last few years, the cost of irrigais becoming prohibitive to the point where farme

BABUL, a farmer from Rashantapurvillage in Rajshahi, Bangladesh,

describes his experiences with direct-seeded rice. Two girls (above right )

take a break after harvesting rice inthe Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.


8/27


regoing the use of their irrigationstems and, like their Bangladeshiunterparts, waiting for the rains.

So, what are the alternatives?ne approach, which has emerged

a promising part of the solutionross the Indo-Gangetic Plains,deceptively simple: rather than

ansplanting rice seedlings into

ooded fields, sow rice seeds directlyto an unflooded field. Such directeding can offer relief in terms of

oth the water and labor problemsnd, since 1999, has been investigated

part of two projects— Promotionf cost-effective weed practicesr lowland rice in Bangladesh

nd Promotion of integrated weedanagement for direct-seeded rice

the Gangetic Plains of India—withllaboration among the Internationalce Research Institute (IRRI),e U.K.-based Natural Resources

stitute (NRI), and the UniversityLiverpool, with additionalnding from the Crop Protection

Programme of the U.K. Department

for International Development.Through IRRI, the work is linked

with the Irrigated Rice Resea rchConsortium and the Consortium forUnfavorable Rice Environments.

With their in-countrycollaborators—the BangladeshRice Research Institute (BRRI)and, in India, G.B. Pant Universityof Agriculture and Technology

in Pantnagar, Narendra DevaUniversity of Agriculture andTechnology in Faizabad, C.S. Azad

Agriculture University in Kanpur, and

Rajendra Agriculture University inPatna—the projects have examinedthe advantages, challenges,

opportunities, and constraints ofdirect seeding across the Indo-Gangetic Plains and the Barind.

Although the idea of a rice farmoften evokes images of flooded

paddies and bunded terraces, directseeding is not a new approach.Until the early 1960s, most Indianand Bangladeshi farmers direct-

seeded their crops. At that time, theintroduction of a more productivemodel of rice production, whichexploited high-yielding varieties andincreased fertilizer use, triggered a

move to transplanting. In an ever-changing production environment,and despite its advantages, thereis growing recognition that thetransplanting model isn’t ideal for

every location and circumstance.There are a number of options

for direct seeding, though theprinciples remain the same. Rice

can be sown with either dry or wet(pregerminated) seed, which iseither placed in rows or broadcast.

LEADING the direct seeding charge ( four photos fromleft to right ): Dr. M.A. Mazid observes direct-seededrice fields in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, with field techni-cian Md. Nazmul Hossain; Pantnagar farmer M.S. Gre-wal (at left ), who describes direct seeding as “verybeneficial,” and G.B. Pant University agronomist Dr.V.P. Singh discuss Mr. Grewal’s experiences; G.B. Pantagronomist Dr. K.S. Shekhar describes how research-

ers are getting information to farmers; and Dr. Y.Singh, also from G.B. Pant, has played a key role indeveloping direct-seeding in northern India.

DIRECT-SEEDED rice (right )

matures 3–4 weeks earlierthan transplanted rice(left ), and so is morelikely to avoid damagingearly-season drought andincrease farmers’ chancesof successfully growing asubsequent nonrice crop.

EXPERIMENTAL plots at G.B. Pant Uni-versity show the devastating effect ofno weeding ( foreground ) versus goodweed management (background ).


Abdul Basir and Shadat Hossain, rice farmers from Rajabari village in the BangladeshRajshahi, tried direct seeding for the first time in 2005, preparing their fields by furrowwith a locally produced lithao, which they demonstrate with Dr. M.A. Mazid, below ( Shada

“Previously,” says Shadat, “I needed a seedbed that required extra management like

seedlings and transplanting. If there was enough rain, I could transplant but, if there w

the seedlings became older and I had to wait—in some years, two months or more. If I tolder seedlings, the yield was very poor. In 2003, there was so little rain that we couldn’

at all.”

“With direct seeding by lithao, we can go ahead, even with little water,” concurs t

old Abdul, who supports a family of seven. “With direct seeding I expect that, whatever h

harvest something. This gives me a good feeling. Before, we believed that if there was no

there would be no crop. Now, we believe that even if there’s only a small amount of rain, t

germinate and we’ll get some rice.”Both farmers have also been struck by the labor advantages of direct seeding, noting

requirements are less and more labor is available when it is needed.

“During transplanting time,” explains Abdul, “every farmer wants to transplant, so the

shortage and labor prices go up. Direct-seeded rice requires 15 labor days per hectare; tra

requires 30 labor days.”

When they transplanted, Abdul and Shadat generally grew only a wet-season rice cropIf there was enough soil moisture following rice harvest, they would plant a chickpea crop

the past five years, Abdul managed to grow chickpeas only once. In 2005, both farmers r

yields from their direct-seeded rice fields and consequently grew successful chickpea crops

There has been keen

interest from surrounding

farmers not directly involvedin the project. Both Abdul andShadat invited their neighbors

to see their crop. About 50 local

farmers visited and, according

to Abdul, were so impressed

that they now plan to try direct

seeding themselves.“We should follow this in

the future,” concludes Shadat.

“We will continue to do this,

even if the extension agents

and the researchers have

gone.”

A TALE OF TWO FARMERS

of the weather. Drought duringthe rice plants’ flowering stagecan devastate the crop, causing

yield losses of 50% or more.

M.A. Mazid, principal scientificofficer and head of the BRRIregional station in Rangpur, explainsthe situation in the Barind.

“Generally,” he says, “farmers

are supposed to transplant by mid-July. But if there’s no rain, they can’ttransplant and the seedlings getolder—40, 50, even 60 days, while

seedlings should be no older thanaround 30 days to get the best yields.”

The need for high levels ofrainfall before transplanting meansthat direct-seeded rice can be

established around 1 month aheadof transplanted rice. In addition,direct-seeded crops are not affected

by “transplanting shock,” a periodof a few days immediately after

transplanting when the plangrow, and so are further advthan those transplanted. WhToday visited rice farms in R

Bangladesh, in early Octoberthe direct-seeded crops had flowered and thus escaped theffects of any subsequent dro

which would have ravaged th

flowering, transplanted crop“Earlier establishment h

an additional advantage,” adDr. Johnson, “because it mea

earlier harvest, which increathe chances of growing a dryseason crop like chickpea, a crop that helps increase incoand so improves the livelihoo

of farmers and their familiesTraditionally, Barind far

transplant a single crop of ri

year, growing a second crop chickpea only if sufficient m

Bangladeshi farmers have testeddry-seeding rice in furrows made by alithao, a simple, low-cost metal plow

drawn by two people (see photo in Atale of two farmers, right). In both

Bangladesh and India, if soil moistureis adequate, pregerminated rice seedmay be either broadcast by hand orsown in rows with an inexpensive

plastic drum seeder, pulled by asingle user (see Drumming upsuccess in Rice Today Vol. 4 No. 2,pages 22-27). Meanwhile, on manynortheastern Indian farms, farmers

use tractor-mounted mechanicalseeders that sow seeds at chosen ratesand simultaneously apply fertilizer.

The specific advantages ofdirect seeding vary with farmers’

circumstances. David Johnson, anIRRI weed scientist and one of theproject’s investigators, explainsthe situation at the eastern end

of the Plains, in Bangladesh.“It takes about 500 mm of

cumulative rainfall for a farmerto be able to establish a rice cropthrough transplanting,” says Dr.

Johnson. “If farmers direct-seed,they can establish the crop fromabout one-quarter of that.”

By direct seeding, therefore,farmers can avoid the hardships

of 2003, 2004, and 2005, whenthe monsoon rains arrived so latethat many growers were unableto establish a rice crop at all.

Further, even if there is sufficientrain for farmers to transplant ontime, they are still at the mercy


9/27


mains in the field followinge rice harvest. Currently, in anerage year, about 80% of thend remains fallow in the second

ason. The earlier harvest of direct-eded rice increases the chancesthere being sufficient residualil moisture for a second crop.

“Chickpea is a high-value crop,”

ys Dr. Mazid, adding that therean excellent market for it in

angladesh, where it fetches aroundo and a half times the price of

ce per unit volume. “Generally,

e import chickpe a from Australia,dia, or even Canada; there isn’tfficient production here.”

The results of the 2005 harvest

ere encouraging. Yields were goodd the early harvest and increasedsidual soil moisture allowed the

rect-seeding farmers to establishickpea crops, which also produced

od yields. Direct seeding helpedsure that farmers and their familiesd enough food during Monga, the

an period in October and November

fore transplanted rice i s harvested.Back west in India’s rice-wheat

lt, some farmers, like their

Bangladeshi counterparts, do nothave access to irrigation. Many

who do, however, are becomingincreasingly reliant on rain due tothe high costs of pumping whileothers face increased competition

from the industrial and urban sectorsthat are making water a scarceresource. If rains arrive too late,

the rice crop is compromised andthe equally important wheat cropis jeopardized. Wheat needs to be

well established before the we ather

becomes cold. For every week beyond1 November that wheat plantingis delayed, the crop suffers a yieldloss of 10%, or around 400 kg, perhectare in the most productive areas.

Project team member Y. Singh,from G.B. Pant University, points outthat the ideal time to transplant is inJune but lack of rain can see farmerstransplanting as late as September.

“Even if one good rain comes,”says Dr. Singh, “a farmer doesn’thave time to transplant his wholearea—he’ll need more good rain.

With direct see ding, we can make

sure that the entire rice area

is sown and sown on time.”

Timely harvests are not the only benefit, with direc t-seeded crops

needing less water overall. Dr. Singhexplains that one of the reasonsfor this is the way that soil behavesunder different planting systems.

“During a period of drought,”he says, “when we don’t get rainsfor many days, the soil in the

A LOCAL MAN cycles past rice fieldsnear Pantnagar, India, where farmers

are informed about weed manage-ment strategies through posters

(above), leaflets, demonstrations,and meetings.


Alya, dressed in bright orange and purple, cuts a distinctivefigure against the bright green backdrop of the rice field. Afarmer from Serapera village, in Bangladesh’s Rajshahi District,

she is not your typical Bangladeshi rice farmer. Although women

play a significant role in Bangladeshi rice production, the head

farmers are usually men. Following the death of her husband,

though, Alya ( pictured right ) was left with no choice but to take

over the farm and single-handedly support her four daughters

and two sons.In the 2005 wet season, Alya used a drum seeder to direct-

seed 1 bigha of land (just less than a seventh of a hectare).

Through reduced water and labor requirements, she immediately

saved around Tk500 (US$7.40) on the direct-seeded plot but,

early on, it didn’t look good.

“But now the direct-seeded crop looks better than thetraditional crop,” she says. “When other people first saw my

field, they said, ‘you’ll lose everything!’ Now, they say, ‘your plot

looks very good, one of the best in the area.’ My neighbors are very happy about this.”

Alya’s 2005 direct-seeded rice, which was 3 weeks ahead her transplanted crop, ac

impressive yield and she was subsequently able to grow successful wheat, sesame, and chic

In the previous season, when she only transplanted rice, Alya grew chickpea and linseed

but the chickpea fared poorly because it was planted too late. Her sons, who help on th

impressed.“One of my sons is saying, ‘Mum, we’ll direct-seed,’” Alya explains. “We won’t trans

more.”

T HE WIDOW FARMER OF SERAPERAtransplanted crop’s field developsmany cracks. Then, to irrigateit and take care of those cracks

requires a lot of water. This doesn’thappen for direct-seeded crops.

When we work it out, the totalquantity of water used for a direct-seeded crop is much less than that

used for a transplanted crop.”The other major advantage of

direct seeding over transplantingis that it requires less labor at

a time when overall farm laboravailability is dropping due to betteropportunities outside agriculturein urban areas. Dr. Singh pointsout that as scarcity has increased,

so have wages. “I would sayagriculture is a last priority,” hesays. “It’s low-paid, seasonal, andhas a high degree of drudgery.”

K.S. Shekhar, associatedirector of extension (agronomy)at G.B. Pant University, says thataround his state of Uttaranchal,increased opportunities in

nonagricultural sectors have causedlabor wage rates to skyrocket.

“This area is in India’s steel belt,” says Dr. Shekhar. “Thereused to be a lot of labor, but now

there are so many other industriesestablished, so farmers wanttechnologies that require less labor.”

Even the farmers themselves

understand why laborers are drawnoff the land. Dr. Shekhar cites anational survey that showed mostfarmers would leave farming for areasonable job in another industry.

Farmers have a common lament,he says, that goes: “When I do a

job, I have an 8-hour headache.Farming is a 24-hour headache.”

There are other cost savings, too.

Direct seeding is generally cheaper

than transplanting, which incurs theexpenses of nursery establishmentand care, and the labor that goes

along with that. And, on larger farms,running tractors and machine seedersis less expensive on a dry, unpuddledfield than on a flooded one.

Dr. Mazid says that, in the

Barind, average crop establishmentcosts per hectare are around US$120for transplanted rice and $90 fordirect-seeded rice—a reduction of

25%. And the results to date show

no yield disadvantage. On thecontrary, Dr. Mazid reports thatin a 2004 study of seven on-farmsites planted to the popular varietySwarna, yields in transplanted plots

were 4.7 tons per hectare while yields in plots that had been direct-

seeded with a drum seeder w

about one ton per hectare moIf direct seeding offers th

advantages, why transplant aThe main answer is simple: wFirst, the transplanted rice s

grown in a nursery before bemoved to the field, have a hea

THRESH

Uttar Pra


10/27


art over any competing weeds.cond, the water in a flooded

ld effectively acts as a herbicide,ppressing weed growth. Thepside, of course, is that weeds aree major problem facing farmers

ho direct-seed, and who can loseost of their yield if they don’t adoptequate weed-control measures.

“It’s likely that farmers whorect-seed will be more reliant on

rbicides,” says Dr. Johnson, “simplycause they can’t rely on floodingsuppress weeds during the crucial

itial period of crop establishment.”Most Indian farmers already use

rbicides. In Bangladesh, farmerse less familiar with herbicides butcent years have seen increased

use. In thepast, wherefarmers have

changed fromtransplanting todirect seeding, alack of good weed

management hasconstrained thedevelopment ofsuccessful direct-seeding systems.

Effective weedmanagementis more than

just spraying a field with herbicide. After 5 years of on-farm trial s, the

researchers are confident that directseeding is a sustainable practice.

“However,” says Dr. Johnson,“it is a knowledge-intensive system

and we’ll need to ensure that thefarmers have the knowledge andinformation they need to make theright decisions at the right time.”

The key to successful

direct seeding on a large scaletherefore lies in the way thatfarmers manage their crops.

“We have to change the farmer’smindset,” says Dr. Singh. “If he wants

to do better, he has to be a bettermanager. Only then will it be possibleto benefit from new technologies.

Productivity

levels, by andlarge, could

be improvedand the gap ispartly due to

management. If afarmer improvesmanagementand input levels,certainly his

productivity

will go up.”Sure enough,

when weeds

are managedappropriately,direct seedingis showingpromising

results. Liketheir Bangladeshicounterparts,the Indian

farmers who direct-seeded in 2005had yields as good as or betterthan for their transplanted fields.

Direct seeding won’t eliminatelabor issues. As more farmers adoptthe technique, there is likely to

be an increased demand for hand

labor for supplementary weeding.Even when herbicide is used, cropsgenerally need at least one follow-up hand weeding. But this shiftin labor use will be spread over

a longer period than the labor bottleneck for transpl anting.

The challenge, then, is greaterthan training farmers to choose themost appropriate herbicides and use

them safely and effectively at thecorrect time. Every field has its own

weed issues, which reflect p ast cropmanagement systems. If a farmer

moves to a new system, different weeds wil l emerge as problems.Farmers therefore need decision-making tools that allow them toanticipate changes and adopt the

most effective strategy for combating weeds (see Work needed to weedout farmers’ problems on page 38).

“Ultimately,” says Dr. Johnson,“we want a series of simple rules

in question-and-answer form. Forexample, ‘What direct seedingmethod should I use?’ or ‘If species

A develops as a serious weed in

the field, what should I do?’. Thisis the next step—to bring togetherthe research results and develop aformat that allows farmers to accessthe information.” (See figure at left )

The real success of these projects will be seen when far mers over a widearea feel confident enough to adoptdirect seeding. The research projectsin Bangladesh and India have shown

that successful weed management

strategies that enable direct seedingcan be put in place in both rainfedand irrigated rice-cropping systems.

“It might not be something thathappens on a wide scale until thecircumstances to encourage such achange are in place,” says Dr. Johnson.“But with declining availability of

irrigation water and of labor at peakperiods, it’s likely that, over the longterm, we’ll see a continued shift to-

wards direct seeding in South Asia.”

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J O S E R A Y M O N D P A N A L I G A N

IRRI WEED scientist

David Johnson examines

a weed with field tech-

nician Emil Barcial.

A DECISION TREE, designed to help

farmers make simple, step-by-step

decisions on how to best manage

their direct-seeded crops.


and quality seedlings. Direct-technologies resulted in earliestablishment and harvest, le

and better weed control. Withduration varieties and time-scrop establishment, it also bepossible to grow nonrice crop

and employment. Anthropologist Stephen

observed some of the technolthat resulted from the processubmergence-tolerance gene

as SUB1 was transferred to Swa popular variety in South Asdevelopment of this variet y isexample of how modern scienare combined with locally pop

varieties to produce improvethat are stress tolerant and acto farmers. The SUB1 gene cafound in Samba-Mahsuri-Sub

Sub1, and Swarna-Sub1.More importantly, these

gies have helped reduce the nfarmers who migrate to nonfaduring the hunger months.

“If we have enough rice t would we leave the village?” ters said.

In summary, to achieve thgoal of rice security, CURE’s g

strategy involves early-duratihigher-yielding varieties; implabor-saving practices; and eaestablishment and harvest, wh

a nonrice crop to be sown on intensify system productivity

food security, and generate inUsing science in combina

local practices to meet the ch

of diverse rice environments a common approach, CURE fthe common denominators anrice security in less favorable

realizable goal.

grain of truth

R ice is life. So, when theglobal rice crisis hit in2008, it threatened many

lives. The year became wellremembered for the soaring prices, thelong lines in the market, the panic, the

blame game, and the social unrest in

different countries. A sense of alarmgrew when rice, known to be t he most“affordable” food for the poor, sudden-ly became “unaffordable.” It remindedthe world of rice’s crucial role in hu-

man existence. It also revived interestin agriculture.

Researchers often focus on farm-ing on irrigated, favorable, and acces-sible farms. But we may fail to rea lize

that many farmers contend with unfavorable areas just so their families canhave enough rice to eat and survive.These so-called unfavorable areas are

rainfed parcels; uplands; drought-prone, ooded, and submerged farms;farms with saline soils; etc.

For a long time, rice science didnot favor investing in unfavorable

areas as they were too diverse, com-plicated, and difcult. Compared withirrigated farms, these topographi-cally, ecologically, and climaticallychallenged areas provided meager

harvests. When the internationaldevelopment community adoptedpoverty as its agship challenge, theopportunity came to establish the

Consortium for Unfavorable Rice En- vironments (CURE) in 2002. Foster-

ing cooperation between the nationalagricultural research and extensionsystems and the International Rice

Research Institute, this initiativeinvolves 10 countries: Bangladesh,Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR,Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines,

Thailand, and Vietnam. As CUREfocuses its research on the develop-ment of less favorable areas, the goalis to provide more food security forthe poor families in the marginal

and diverse rainfed environments inmonsoon South and Southeast Asia,through more sustainable and resilient

rice-based production systems.Using an ecosystems paradigm,

the research sites under the CUREproject include drought-prone plateau

uplands, drought-prone lowlands, salt-affected lowlands, sloping rotationalupland systems, the submergence-prone environment, and the intensiveupland systems with long growing

seasons. The project uses a commonapproach to examine eight generic

themes (germplasm improvement, rice varietal diversity, seeds and seedlingmanagement, crop establishment,cropping system enhancement, up-scaling activities, patterns of labor use,

and food security) across the differentsites, but the resulting technologies arespecic to each ecosystem.

Among these technologies, the

primacy of seeds is the most recurrent.For the Filipino farmers in the Arakan

Valley, for example, rice seed securityis food security. When they run outof food, the people start to eat t heir

seeds. Hence, they set up a communityseed bank.

Through participatory varietalselection, farmers chose seeds among

different varieties that performed wellin the eld compared with the tradi-tional ones. Along with this, CUREintroduced the concept of clean andhealthy seeds, lower seeding rates,

BY GELIA T. CASTILLO

can less favorable area

obtain food security?

Using science in combination

with local practices to meet

the challenges of diverse rice

environments, CURE made

rice security in less favorable

areas a realizable goal.

Dr. Gelia T. Castillo is a natiscientist of the Philippines.


11/27

Since the dawnof agriculture,

drought has been the bane of

rmers, especially those

ho grow rice, a cropat has special water

quirements. Droughtress severely limits riceoductivity in the rainfedosystem in which farmers

ten experience total cropilure because of a lack ofater at one critical plantowth stage or another,cording to Arvind

umar, a plant breederthe International Rice

esearch Institute (IRRI).Most rainfed areas

ceive a reasonable

mount of rainfall duringe growing season.

However,” says Dr. Kumar,s erratic distribution and

ortage, particularly at owering andain at grain-lling, can seriouslyrtail productivity.” He adds thatia alone has around 23 millionctares (20% of the total rice area)

at are prone to drought under thesenditions and where climate changeay make matters, particularlyater scarcity, only worse.

Without assured irrigation,

rmers are completely dependent rainfall to water their crops. Thessibility of drought has made rice

rming a risky endeavor. Because of

e risk, farmers do not invest enoughinputs to increase rice production.

To help farmers cope with water

by Lanie C. Reyes

scarcity, IRRI has bred several new

lines that are as high-yielding asany normal varieties with sufcient

water. They have a 0.8 to 1 ton perhectare yield advantage whenever

drought occurs. Two of these drought-

tolerant breeding lines have beenrecommended for ofcial release:IR74371-70-1-1 in India and its sisterline IR74371-54-1-1 in the Philippines.

“IRRI has intensied effortsto develop drought-tolerant andaerobic cultivars to cope with thislooming water shortage,” says DavidMackill, leader for IRRI’s rainfed

program. “Drought has been acomplex trait to improve, and I am

very happy to see the recentadvances and progress

in developing drought-tolerant lines at IRRI.”

Most farmers in

rainfed/drought-proneareas grow varieties bred

for irrigated conditionssuch as IR36, IR64,Poornima, MTU1010,Lalat, Swarna, and

Sambha Mahsuri, amongothers. Unfortunately,these varieties are highlysusceptible to drought.

Whenever a severe drought

occurs, these irrigated varieties suffer high lossesand farmers are lucky toharvest even half a tonper hectare from them.

“With the cultivation ofthe newly bred drought-tolerant lines, in normal-rainfall years, farmers

will have the same high yield ofirrigated varieties, and in drought

years they can harvest 1.5 to 2 tonsfrom 1 hecta re,” says Dr. Kumar.

IRRI works with the national

agricultural research and extensionsystems (NARES) for the evaluationof newly developed breeding lines.Before a breeding line is identied forrelease, it undergoes testing in the

national system and is recommendedfor release after its superiorperformance in the national trials.The newly developed drought-tolerant

lines IR74371-70-1-1 and IR74371-54-1-1 outperformed the current

varieties in national trials in India

New drought-tolerant lines developed at IRRI give hope to farmers in drought-prone

areas in eastern India and the Philippines

I R R I


Making rice and the Philippinesand have beenrecommended forrelease for farmers’

cultivation. The two breeding lines alsoperformed well underaerobic and alternate

wetting and drying

(AWD) situations(see The Big Squeeze, pages 21-31 of RiceToday Vol. 7, No.

2 and Every dropcounts, pages 16-18).

IRRI’s Systemfor Temperate andTropical Aerobic Rice project under

the Challenge Program for Water andFood has been building a network onparticipatory varietal selection (PVS)

testing and evaluation since 2004.The project aims to develop prototype

aerobic rice production systemsfor water-scarce environments.

According to Ruben Lampayan, water management scientist

at IRRI, a major component ofthe project was to identify rice

varieties with high yield potentialunder aerobic conditions fromamong IRRI’s advanced lines

through PVS. They tapped theirproject partners to collaborate inimplementing PVS with farmers.

In the PhilippinesDr. Lampayan has found in JunelB. Soriano, director for research,extension, training, and productionat Bulacan Agricultural

State College (BASC), theheart and passion to reachout to more partners andstakeholders with aerobicrice and other water-saving

technologies. Hence, inthe Philippines, IR74371-54-1-1 has been tested atBASC since 2004 and infarmers’ elds in Bulacan,

La Union, Bataan, andPalawan since 2006.

Dr. Soriano recallsa time during the dry

season of 2004 when atrial was conducted in asmall testing plot at BASC

in coordination with IRRI. They

invited farmers, technicians, andresearchers during the PVS.

During that PVS, one

impressed farmer eagerly asked,“Can I reproduce that line on my

farm?” That farmer was NemencioConcepcion, 49, of San Ildefonso,Bulacan. He became interestedin the drought-tolerant variety

because it seemed tailor-made forhis drought-prone upland area.

On his own initiative, hereproduced the line and was happy

with the results. His neighboring

farmers were eager to try it ontheir farms. Eventually, the line

became popular among farmers,and is known among them as “5411”(instead of IR74371-54-1-1).

According to Dr. Soriano, 5411matures 2 weeks ahead of theirpreviously used variety, which takes

120 days to mThe new linean average otons per hec

Also, it is veresistant to and diseasesfar, farmers experienced

or any otherMr. Con

proudly annthat the rice

planted in F was harvesteMay. “Becaushorter dura

allows me to harvest not just

three times a year,” he says. “this variety is tolerant of drocan plant the crop even durin

season without any fear of crSince his farm is on high

ground, he needs to pump in With AWD technology, he is that he does not need to oodpaddies. He pumps water on

few times a month and only wnecessary. “I save much on won gasoline for the pump, evethe dry season,” Mr. Concepc

His recent crop experien

more than 2 weeks of droughhe pumped water to his uplarice area. However, there wasrice area where he was not abpump water because of insuf

available water. “I sacriced area and accepted its fate becthe rice plants wilted already

stated. But, when ra

came, he was surprito see that his plantrecovered from wilt

Although the ricrecovered from drou

expected to be harveabout 2 weeks later the rest of the 5411, istill within an accepduration. Above all,

glad to be able to harice despite the drou(For drought-suscep

varieties, more than

weeks of drought inelds may yield almnothing for farmers.

Mr. Concepcion (right )— a farmerin Bulacan, explains to Dr. Sorianoof BASC, that this part of his ricefarm wilted because of drought.But, when rain came, it fully

recovered.

Dozens of promising drought-tolerantcultivars are being tested on the IRRIfarm in the Philippines. Here, Dr. Kumarshows drought-tolerant rice on his rightcompared with a susceptible variety on hisimmediate left.

L A N I E

C .

R E Y E S

G E N E

H E T T E L



12/27

Mr. Concepcion’s experienceconsistent with what Dr. Kumarys about the new drought-tolerant

nes: “They withstand drought at

y stage of the crop cycle. Moreover,ey withstand drought even at theproductive stage, when the plantffers more loss due to d rought.”

“Since that line can be

oadcast-seeded instead ofansplanted, I saved a lot on laborsts,” relates Mr. Concepcion.don’t need to hire laborers to

ant seedlings in the nursery, pullem from the seedbed, tie themgether, and transplant them.”

Every harvest, Mr. Concepcionrns around US$638 to $850

r hectare from his rice eld (ofha) planted with 5411. Plus, hen harvest three times a year.

Mr. Concepcion is indeede happy and satised farmer.

s inuence on other farmers toopt 5411 reaches Nueva Ecija and

ampanga provinces. Even if ricelds in these areas are irrigated,

ere is no problem because 5411ll performs well in wet areas.

According to Dr. Soriano,r. Concepcion is so effective inuencing other farmers to adopt

11 and increase the productivitytheir lands that he considersr. Concepcion not just a farmeroperator but a partner in BASC’stension efforts.

Mr. Concepcion was one of thest 13 farmer cooperators in 2004.

hey increased to 50 in 2005, to in 2006, and BASC now has

ore than 100 farmer cooperators.ccording to Dr. Soriano, the successadoption can be attributed to

rmer-to-farmer inuence andpport from the local government.

Dr. Soriano is more thancouraged in sharing the benets5411 along with its management

chnologies, the aerobic system, ande AWD system in the Philippines,

cause he believes that morermers can benet from all this,rticularly those in rainfed areas.

He plans to expand extension

tivities at BASC by involvingher state universities and collegesover the country. He has

started to coordinate with otherstate universities such as BataanPolytechnic State University, PalawanState University, and Mindanao

Foundation College, among others.

In eastern India

Similarly, in eastern India, IRRIintroduced a drought-tolerant

breeding line, IR74371-70-1-1, whichhas also consistently performed

well both at research centers and infarmers’ elds. Since eastern India

is one of the largest drought-affectedareas, a variety that can cope with adry spell is a welcome change in ricefarming.

IR74371-70-1-1

was initially testedunder an India-IRRIcollaborative project,

the Drought BreedingNetwork (DBN),

whose partners arethe Central RainfedUpland Rice ResearchStation (CRURRS)

in Hazaribag; IndiraGandhi Krishi

Vishwa Vidyalaya,Raipur; Birsa

Agricultural Univ.,

Ranchi; NarendraDev Universityof Agricultureand Technology,Faizabad; Tamil Nadu

Agricultural University, Coimbatore;University of Agricultural Sciences,Bangalore; and Barwale Foundation,Hyderabad, India. Courtesy of the

DBN, researchers have identied thisentry as promising for the drought-prone ecosystem.

Since this line is a product ofa joint endeavor, the team from

CRURRS suggested the nameSahbhagi dhan, which means, inHindi, rice developed throughcollaboration. Recently, the VarietyIdentication Committee (VIC)

recommended it for release tothe Central Subcommittee onCrop Standards, Notication,and Release of Varieties.

Nimai P. Mandal, a plant breederat CRURRS, tested Sahbhagi dhanduring the wet season of 2004. It

has consistently performed well, better than any other entries of thatduration, since then. “In 2007, westarted testing this variety in farmers’

elds in two villages near Hazaribag,”he says.

Kailash Yadav, 34, and NareshPaswan, 38, of Mahesha, Hazaribag,Jharkhand, are two farmers who

had the opportunity to observe ademonstration using Sahbhagi dhanconducted by CRURRS and theytried it on their respective farms.

As a result, they were delighted toharvest 4.5 tons of rice per hectarein a good monsoon year. Before

using the drought-tolerant variety,they harvested only 3 to 3.7 tonsper hectare. They are also pleased

with its traits such as the ability to

tolerate a month-long drought, earlymaturity, and good eating quality.

Farmers in rainfed areas suchas Mr. Yadav and Mr. Paswanlargely depend on rain for a good

harvest. But, good years may befew and as unpredictable as theonset of drought. If the rains arepoor, this can spell catastrophe forall. Mr. Yadav still remembers the

2006 drought that affected t heir village. W ithout any income fro mfarming, he somehow managedsome earnings from his small

grocery store. But, many villagersmigrated to town to work as dailylaborers. One was Mr. Paswan.

An agricultural field assistant of theCentral Rainfed Upland Rice ResearchStation interviews farmers who have

tested Sahbhagi dhan on their farms.

C R U R R S (

2 )


Though he describes the droughtas “not so severe,” it still affectedthe people of his village. Finances

were so dif cult then t hat he needed

to borrow money from anotherfarmer for his transportation.

Sahbhagi dhan gave the twofarmers opportunity and hope inrice farming. “I have condence that

this variety will be a blessing forfarmers in drought-stress situations,”says Mr. Paswan. “And, we canmanage the problem of drought

by growing this variety,” adds Mr. Yadav. Because both are impressed by the qualities of Sahbhagi dhan,

they are going to recommend itand share it with their neighbors assoon as they have sufcient seed.

“Drought-tolerant lines have

received high farmers’ preferencescores in both normal and droughttrials and farmers look convincedof adopting such superior variet ies,”says Dr. Stephan Haefele, soil

scientist and agronomist andresponsible for testing the lines infarmers’ elds under PVS in India.

More farmers besides Mr.Paswan and Mr. Yadav will benet

from Sahbhagi dhan. Accordingto Dr. Mandal, the rainfed uplandarea in India occupies about 6million hectares. But the target

area for Sahbhagi dhan could bemore because it is also suitable fordrought-prone shallow lowlands.

U.S. Singh, the regionalcoordinator for South Asia of theBill & Melinda Gates Foundation-supported project on “Stress-tolerant

rice for poor farmers in Africa andSouth Asia” and responsible forseed production and disseminationof Sahbhagi dhan, plans to havelarge-scale seed multiplication

of this line in 2009 and produce100 tons of seed to distribute toas many farmers as possible bythe next wet season in India.

National Food Security Missionof India, National Seed Corporation,

various public- and private-sectorseed corporations andcompanies, research

organizations, andNGOs are interestedin, reproducing

and disseminatingSahbhagi dhan seeds.

“Our purpose is totake this varietyto the maximumnumber of farmers in

the shortest possibletime,” says Dr. Singh.

As the scientistnow responsible fordeveloping drought-

tolerant varieties,Dr. Kumar says thathe is very lucky to

witness the successof this teamwork.

When asked whether this ishis greatest accomplishment as ascientist, he says, “This is IRRI’sachievement. Other scientists before

me have been working for about 40 years to achieve this.” Dr. BrigitteCourtois attempted the crosses,

which has led to the developmentof these two lines. And it was Dr.

Gary Atlin, who introduced theconcept, initiated and conductedexperiments on direct selectionfor grain yield under droughtstress. He combined high yield

potential under irrigated situation with good yield under drought.

Forty years? What turning pointalong the way led to high-yielding

drought-tolerant rice? IRRI scientistsstarted working in a different way:

working directly on improving

grain yield in rice under drouDr. Rachid Serraj, a drou

physiologist involved in dissthe mechanisms of drought t

and its genetic variation in rithat combining high yield poand drought tolerance througselection for grain yield is onthe right approaches for deve

drought-tolerant lines, in addto marker-assisted selection GM (gene modication) appr(see Overcoming the toughes

in rice: drought on page 30).In the years before that,

scientists had been working oimproving the traits thoughtrelated to drought tolerance s

as leaf rolling, rooting depthother traits. They believed thunder drought could be incre

improving these secondary tIn 2004, IRRI breeders s

work on direct selection for gunder drought stress. At rst

were not sure that this wouldresults. But, subsequent expe

conrmed that this approachFor a plant breeder like D

Kumar, “developing droughtcultivars is the most efcientto stabilize rice production in

drought-prone areas.” Higheof drought-tolerant lines in d

years should encourage farmapply more inputs such as fethat further raise the produc

the rainfed drought-prone syBecause of drought-tolerant lfarmers will indeed lower therisks of investing their mone

time in drought-prone areas.Sahbhagi dhan and 5411

other similar drought-toleranthat may be developed in the

will benet and provide con

rice farmers not just in IndiaPhilippines but also in other prone areas in Asia, Africa, aparts of the world. In fact, a promising drought tolerant l

and aerobic cultivars are nowtested in India, Bangladesh, and the Philippines under prsupported by the Bill & Melin

Foundation, Rockefeller FouGeneration Challenge Prograand Asian Development Ban

The soon-to-be-released drought-tolerantSahbhagi dhan in eastern India thrivesunder drought conditions.



13/27

Rice Today April-June 2008 Rice Today April-June 2008

I

n 1998, the farming communityof Canarem, 120 kilometers

north of Manila in the Philippineprovince of Tarlac, had reasonto celebrate. The Philippine

ational Irrigation AdministrationNIA) funded the construction of

deep-well pump, designated P-8, that would allow the farmers to

igate their rice elds. Previouslypendent on rain or shallow

bewell pumps, which often run dry,38 promised to help C anarem’sveral dozen farmers produce

higher-yielding, more reliable crops.Sure enough, P-38 did improve

things. Farmers had access tomore water and started growing anadditional dry-season rice crop each

year. But the celebration was muted.NIA paid in advance for the diesel

that fueled the pump, with farmersrepaying with a portion of theirharvest at the end of the season. Witha steady source of irrigation water

and no need to pay up-front fuelcosts, farmers adopted a “too muchis better than not enough” policy.

As new members joined thecooperative, enticed by P-38’s

promise, each farmer’s wait betweenirrigations—which should have been7 days—grew to almost 2 weeks. Inthe dry season, the interval becameso long that elds dried out and

the soil began to crack. Some of theincreasingly anxious farmers wouldsneak out at night and divert waterinto their own elds by placing holes

underneath their paddy dikes. Othersturned to alcohol. Village ofcials

were called in to resolve con icts.

For 3 years after the constructionof P-38, tensions and distrust grew

among the families of Canarem.Then, in 2002, two events

conspired to turn things around.First, with the rising cost of fuel,NIA announced it would no longer

pay for diesel, which had morethan quadrupled in price sinceP-38 began operating. Second,a team of researchers arrived,

hoping to introduce a water-savingtechnology known as alternate

wetting and drying, or AWD (also

called controlled irrigation).Scientists at the International

Rice Research Institute (IRRI)and the Philippine Rice ResearchInstitute (PhilRice) had established

that rice need not be continuouslyooded. It can be ooded to a lesserextent than usual (to a depth of

3–5 centimeters instead of up to10 centimeters), allowed to dry

to a degree, then re-ooded, withthis cycle repeated throughout theseason if the soil remains oodedthroughout the all-important

owering period. Up to a quarterless water is needed and there is nodrop in yield. Importantly, farmersdon’t need to make any other majorchanges to the way they manage

their crop (see also The benets ofa hole in the ground , on page 29).

The practice, conrmed inexperimental elds, needed to beextended to real farms. So, IRRI

and PhilRice initially teamed up with NIA staf f to introduce AWDto farmers. Canarem seemed the

ideal place to start but, accorto Vic Vicmudo, manager of NTarlac Groundwater IrrigatioSystems Reactivation Projecthis was easier said than don

“For centuries, farming iPhilippines has been based oidea that, the more water, the

the yield,” says Dr. Vicmudo.not easy to reverse that belief

But the plain fact is that,areas, rice farmers simply dohave enough water. Bas Boum

water scientist and head of I

Crop and Environmental SciDivision, says that it was thisunderstanding that drove nothe initial collaboration but aparticipation of other organi

such as state colleges and un“It started in 2000 with

and PhilRice on a very small recalls Dr. Bouman. “Step bymore and more partners cam

board—now, we can barely cthe number of partners involMany of these attended a traSQUEEZEThe bigStory by Adam Barclay,photos byRaymond Jose Panaligan

s well as improving farmers’ incomes and productivity, water-

aving technologies can also help to ease social tensions—but

ot without local experts who champion the cause

THE MAIN CANAL fromPantabangan Reservoirirrigates around 90,000hectares in the Philippines’Central Luzon region.

IRRI’S RUBEN LAMPAYAN points at dry, fallowfields—a common sight in Central Luzon, wherewater-saving technologies can help farmers growdry-season crops.

STANDING IN FRONT of the P-38 deep-well pump are(left to right ) Ramon Ganiban, Dario Antalan, andManuel Apolonio—president, treasurer, and secretary,respectively, of the P-38 Irrigation Service Cooperative.


14/27

Rice Today April-June 2008 Rice Today April-June 2008

urse we ran in 2004, and tookfrom there on their own.”

Dr. Bouman says the urgencyems from farmers’ lack of choice.

We often get asked, ‘How can younvince farmers to save water?’ Myandard reply is that we don’t needconvince them to save what they

on’t have. These technologies are

ally about helping farmers whoe unable to keep elds oodedget the best out of the limited

ater they have,” he explains.

Jump forward to the present, andanarem is a different place, saysanuel Apolonio, secretary of the38 Irrigation Service Cooperative

nd owner of a 2-hectare farm.

“There used to be so manynicts between cooperativeembers and managers,” Mr.polonio recalls. “Now, the farmersnow how to manage water. Before,

the soil started to crack, people

thought the crops would die. Now,they know that small cracks are OK.”

In a way, farmers were

practicing AWD before it wasformally introduced. But it was anuncontrolled AWD, forced ontofarmers by insufcient and poorly

managed irrigation. With theknowledge of how to use water moreefciently, the yields obtained byCanarem’s farmers using AWD, at5–6 tons per hectare, are the same

as when they tried to maintaincontinuously ooded elds.

Ramon Ganiban, P-38cooperative president and ownerof a 4-hectare farm, says that

when the researchers and NIAstaff introduced them to AWD,many of the cooperative’s 61farmers were skeptical. Now, the

cooperative’s success has inspiredneighboring communities.

Ironically, having farmers payfor their own fuel was a key to thetechnology’s success, as it provided

a nancial incentive to use less water. Before they learned about AWD, farmers ran the pump for10–12 hours to irrigate a single

hectare. That has been reduced bymore than half, to 4–5 hours.

AWD rice crops also require lesslabor and are 20–25% cheaper tomanage than continuously ooded

crops, meaning higher prot forfarmers. In fact, under AWD, someCanarem farmers have gone from

barely breaking even from ricefarming to making a modest income.

“There’s really been a big change

in the farmers’ mind-set and culture,”

says Mr. Ganiban. “Now, peopleknow that, if they’re short of moneyfor fuel, they can just ash-oodthe crop and it will be OK. We don’t

need to prove AWD anymore: we’vedone it for 6 years and we know it

works. AWD has really strengthenedthe cooperative. There are no moreconicts and farmers understand

each other’s needs much be tter.” Armilito Lactaoen, one of

NIA’s senior technical staff, works with farmers in the nearby GP-125

Irrigation Service Cooperative.He cautions that, although AWDcan “solve the problem of greed inirrigating,” it needs good peoplemanagement. Some cooperatives

have failed to adopt AWD, hesays, because of “human resourceproblems, such as a lack of strongco-op leadership or managementproblems within the co-op.”

NIA is working with farmergroups at 72 irrigation systems acrossTarlac. Around 20% of the farmershave adopted controlled AWD (as

opposed to uncontrolled AWD, whichhas been forced onto Tarlac’s farmers

through a lack of water), but somesystems have seen 100% adoption.Dissemination is now the main

challenge. Dr. Vicmudo is optimistic,pointing out that, once farmersare convinced, they themselves

become key disseminators.“NIA, PhilRice, and IRRI have

held several harvest festivals,”he says. “Yields from farmsusing traditional irrigation and

AWD were directly compared,

so farmers could see that there’s

nothing hocus-pocus, no magic.”Just north of Tarlac in Nueva

Ecija Province, IRRI, PhilRice,and NIA are working with farmer

groups that get their irrigation waterfrom subcanals running off themain canal of the Upper PampangaRiver Integrated Irrigation System(UPRIIS). Fed by Pantabangan

Reservoir in the foothills of northernNueva Ecija, UPRIIS irrigates anarea of around 90,000 hectares inCentral Luzon, the region north of

Manila (the area will soon undergo a35,000-hectare expansion), and is thecountry’s largest irrigation system.

One of the biggest challenges ofmanaging UPRIIS is ensuring that

the farms farthest from the reservoirand the main canal receive theirshare of water, especially given thatthose closest to the source tend touse more than they need. Evangeline

Sibayan, agricultural engineeringdivision head at PhilRice, likens theproblem to 50 people sharing a 10-liter bottle of water. “The people who

drink rst need to take into accountthose who will drink later,” she says.

Ms. Sibayan says that ndingfarmers to try AWD in 2007

was extremely difcult. It took a

demonstration trial at PhilRiceand, ultimately, a promise tocompensate farmers for any yieldloss compared with 2006 productionto convince a farmer group serviced

by a subcanal named Lateral F.The result? Perhaps the best

evidence is the fact that PhilRice barely paid out any compensation.

To help farmers move to alternaand drying, IRRI devised a simcheck when a crop needs water. Aholes drilled into it is pushed parthe rice-field soil. Farmers can thethe water level, irrigating when a certain distance—usually acentimeters—below the surface.above that level, the plants’ rootsthe water and the crop will betool is simple enough for farmerconstruct it from cheap local matas PVC or bamboo. After one or twfarmers no longer need the tubable to judge when to irrigate looking at the crop. If a new trelies on complex, difficult-toexpensive methods, it is bounSimple, adaptable tools—like a hground—are crucial.

The benefits of a hole ithe ground

Not only were yields as high as

they had been under continuousooding, but 2007 was also therst year for many during whichdownstream farmers—those

farthest from Lateral F—didn’tcomplain about a lack of water.

The Malaya Irrigators’ Association (MIA), a group of 264farmers covering 265 hectares in

the municipality of Santo Domingo,also adopted AWD in 2007. Thefarmers here also agree that thepractice has reduced tensions

and improved social ha rmony.“With AWD, there’s better

unity among MIA members,”says MIA President VictorinoErese. “Before, people looked

out only for themselves.”Prior to AWD’s introduction,

60% of MIA farmers grew dry-seasonrice. Despite initial doubts, thatgure has increased to 80% after

only one year. An unanticipated bonus is that lenders now have morecondence in the MIA members’ability to repay loans and thus

are happier to offer credit.One major difference between

implementing AWD in an areaserviced by a gravity-fed irrigationsystem like UPRIIS versus a deep-

well system like P-38 is directeconomic incentive. In Canarem,

where farmers pay for their own fuel,the less water they use, the highertheir income. In Santo Domingo,

farmers pay a at fee, regardlessof how much water they use. So, if

you’re an upstream farmer with goodaccess to water, why conserve it?

Ms. Sibayan argues thatfarmers recognize and valuesocial benets. “If downstrea

farmers didn’t get water,” she

DANILO ESTEBAN, vice president of theIrrigators’ Association, checks the wateAWD rice field.

NIA’s Armilito Lactaoen. VIC VICMUDO,manager of NIA’sTarlac GroundwaterIrrigation System

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