Field Day on “Dry Converted wet Rice” at KVK, Wyra On 16-11-2021

The advent of 21st century heralded the burgeoning of populations which is placing burden on increasing the production of paddy as it as the staple food for south Indians. Along with it, the scarcity of labour and amplified cost of cultivation is necessitating the need for introduction of technologies that are less dependent on labour and decrease the cost of cultivation. The rice transplanting is done manually by using seedlings of 20 to 30 days. The manual transplantation requires more man days per hectare and is labour intensive compared to 1 to 2 man days per hectare required in these methods. The dry converted method consists of sowing seed directly using seed drill or broadcasting in a well levelled field. The late onset of monsoon with erratic and untimely water supply delays rice transplanting. Further, the deficit monsoons, delayed and limited release of water from reservoirs is a major concern to farmers as they do not get sufficient water at right time and it is imperative for them to complete transplanting within a short time of water availability. The rice cultivators are increasingly facing water crisis in traditional rice cultivation along with challenges of increased labour cost. The transplanting of rice necessitates adequate land preparation both for nursery and main field with them consuming more water. It also requires 25 – 30 man days for manual establishment of the same and is dependent on soil type.These alarming situations of rainfall vagaries, delayed and limited release of water from canals has brought forth Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Wyra to assess the performance of dry converted wet rice cultivation as an alternative to traditional method of transplanting rice which could avoid the present-day situations to certain extent in reducing the cost of cultivation and also to avoid labour shortage.The onset of monsoon results in flooding of water bodies like canals, tanks, rivers, reservoirs with water and when water is abundantly available for paddy cultivation farmers convert it into flooded rice. This method has the advantage of saving time of around 45 to 60 days without any delay in paddy cultivation. In comparison to transplanted method, in dry converted wet rice method considerable amount of water can be saved and the crop matures 7-10 days earlier. The net returns increased approximately by 8000 to 10000 per acre and timely sowing of rabi crops can be taken up. In view of this, KVK, Wyra has organised field day on “Dry converted wet rice” in its field on 16.11.2021 for creating awareness and popularising the method. Along with dry converted wet rice and direct seeded rice, machine planting of rice was explained and fields shown to farmers. The meeting was participated by Mrs. K. Vijayanirmala, DAO, Khammam, Dr. J. Hemantha Kumar, Programme Coordinator along with scientists Dr. Jessie Suneetha W, Dr. V. Chaitanya, Dr. K. Ravi Kumar, Mrs. P. S. M. Phanisri and department officials. The progressive farmers at the forefront of this technology from Vemsoor and Wyra mandals shared their experience with farmers numbering 96 and they showed great interest in adopting the technology. The queries concerning the technology were clarified and also suggested alternate crops for Yasangi Rice by the Scientists of KVK and department officials.