Mechanized transplanting in system of rice intensification and its evaluation

Abstract

World Bank funded Irrigated Agriculture Modernization and Water Bodies Restoration and Management project was implemented in river basins to produce more with less input in Tamil Nadu. SRI was introduced in mission mode approach over larger areas with the objective of maximizing the productivity of crop and water. One of the main constraints was labourers’ availability and acceptance for square planting of young seedlings. The on farm trial was conducted with 3 treatments viz., Conventional transplanting @ 20 x10 cm spacing, SRI (all components), Machine planted SRI (except planting all SRI components). Results showed that SRI with full components performed superior owing more no. of productive tillers of 22.1 /hill, 148 grains/panicle and 21.4 cm panicle length over machine planted SRI and Conventional transplanted rice (8.3 productive tillers/hill, 105 grains/panicle and 18.8 cm panicle length). Higher net income of Rs. 64,630/ha were obtained in SRI, whilst the benefit cost ratio were higher in Machine planted SRI of Rs.2.68 than SRI of Rs.2.64. SRI resulted higher water productivity of 8.38 kg/ha mm followed by machine planted SRI of 8.2 kg/ ha mm when compared to CTR owes low water productivity of 4.85 kg/ha mm. Machine planting has reduced the labour requirement for the crop establishment which in turn increased the labour productivity of 7.93 kg/man days when compared to CTR of 4.4 kg/man days. Labour saving was very much upfront with the machine. Hence, with lesser water and labour more rice can be produced in unit area by using the modified SRI transplanter.