Author(s):

Baljinder Kaur Sidana, JM Singh, Hardeep Kumar, Jasdev Singh and Jatinder Sachdeva

Abstract: Direct Seeded Rice is a feasible alternative to conventional puddled transplanted rice with good potential to save water, reduce labour requirement and mitigate green house gas emissions. Though puddled transplanted rice is the most popular system but whether under the emerging scenario of acute shortages of water and labor, it would maintain sustainability in future is highly uncertain in Punjab state. The study aimed to highlight the changing pattern of labour use in resource conservation technologies in Punjab agriculture. The sample of 84 farmers (30 adopters and 54 non-adopters) from two districts of Punjab was selected through multi-stage random sampling technique. Data were collected by directly interviewing the farmers through well-structured schedule. The variable cost per hectare for paddy cultivation was less on adopter farms as compared to non-adopter farms. A significant saving in hours of irrigation i.e. 45 per cent was achieved for irrigating one hectare of the DSR farm as compared to non-DSR farm. A significant saving of machine labour to the extent of 44 per cent for preparatory tillage was observed on DSR farms as compared to non-DSR farms. Direct seeded rice was effective in saving of irrigation water to the tune of almost half of the PTR farms. The per hectare water productivity on direct seeded rice fields was 1.27 kg per m³ whereas on puddled fields it was 0.61 kg per m³ which means that DSR technology resulted in the enhancement of water productivity of paddy crop. Binary Logistic Regression was used in which direct seeding of technology adoption was regressed with no. of independent variables such as years of schooling, member of kisan club, training attended of DSR technology, Source of information, operational size of holdings per horse power of electric motor used, age of respondents, ratio of members engaged in agriculture to total members in family and age. The adoption of direct seeding of rice technology decisions were mainly influenced if the adopter was a member of kisan club and training attended of DSR technology which came out to be highly significant and positive. The estimated odds ratio for member of Kisan club and training attended of DSR technology was 11.76 and 6.3 respectively which suggested that one per cent increase in these variables will lead to increase in adoption by 11 times and 6 times. The important constraint in the adoption of this technology was non-availability of seed drill, high amount of weeds and lack of awareness. Subsidizing cost of direct seeding of rice per acre will increase the area under this technology as more farmers will go for its adoption. There is a dire need for capacity building of farmers for effective management of weed and pest in DSR.

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