Impact assessment of water efficient rice production technology on farmers’ field

The experiments were conducted during kharif season of 2018 and 2019 at farmers’ fields, Madurai in the Southern Zone of Tamil Nadu to find out the water efficient rice production technology. The experiment consisted of six crop establishment treatments viz., direct planting system, drum seeding, system of rice intensification (SRI), aerobic rice, drip irrigated rice and conventional planting system. The rice variety ASD 16 was used and the experiments were arranged in a randomized block design with four replications. Among the water efficient techniques, drum seeding registered the higher grain yield (5650 kg ha-1), which was comparable to the direct planting system (5592 kg ha-1). The system of rice intensification produced the grain yield of 5025 kg ha-1. The conventional method of transplanting produced higher yield than SRI. Interestingly, the water productivity was higher in aerobic rice (6.92 kg/ ha mm-1 of water) despite its lower yield. Around 49.6 % water can be saved by means of aerobic rice when compared to conventional method of rice cultivation. Hence, the water efficient methods like drum seeding and direct planting systems are recommended for canal irrigated areas, while aerobic rice is suitable for water scarcity regions, turn irrigation systems and well irrigated areas to enhance water use efficiency and sustain rice farming.