Resource use efficiency of SRI v/s conventional method of rice cultivation and factor affecting adoption of SRI in Balaghat district

Abstract

Rice is the staple food for about 50 percent of the world’s population that resides in Asia. Where 90 percent of the world’s rice is grown and consumed major objectives are to estimate efficiency in the traditional and SRI method of paddy cultivation and to examine reasons for adopting SRI and problems faced by traditional farmers in the adoption of SRI in Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh. Four major paddy growing blocks were selected from each block and 2 villages was selected from each block. Totally 150 farmers were selected. The present study was undertaken on the basis of primary data collected from 150 paddy growers selected from Balaghat district during 2020-21. In spite of its advantage, the method gained less popularity among rice farmers. The present study an resource use efficiency analysis tried to analysis that SRI rice cultivation method provides higher grain yield returns compared to other conventional rice method. The increase net return realized in SRI method were constricted by the high cost of cultivation contributed by inter culture, harvesting and planting operation, from profitability point of view the reduction in the cost of cultivation is possible only by using cheap human labour or by including more family labour which poses the question of social sustainability. Therefore the SRI method to be refined with less labour intensive, technology oriented and user friendly improvement for the continued adoption.