Resource conservation technology for enhancing the rice productivity in India: A review

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important staple food crops in the world. In India, rice occupies an area of 43.79 million ha with an average production of 112.91 million tones and productivity of 2.58 tonnes/ha (Anonymous, 2018). However, continuous use of traditional puddling method in rice crop has degraded the soil resource base and intensified soil degradation with concomitant decrease in crop production capacity. Further, escalating fuel, fertilizers and other input costs; necessitates the effective use of resources in agriculture. Demand for rice is growing every year and it is estimated that in 2025 AD, the requirement would be 140 million tonnes (Duttarganvi et al., 2016). In order to achieve this target, the productivity of rice has to be brought to the level of 3.3 tonnes/ha (Anjani et al., 2014). Food security depends on the ability to increase production with decreasing availability of resources to grow crops. The resource conservation technologies (RCTs) primarily focus on resource savings through minimal tillage, ensuring soil nutrients and moisture conservation through crop residues and growth of cover crops, and adoption of spatial and temporal crop sequencing. The resource conservation agriculture (RCT) technologies involving direct seeded rice (DSR), system of rice intensification (SRI), alternate wetting and drying (AWD), furrow irrigated raised bed planting systems (FIRB) and other inclusive technological practices have potential for improving productivity and soil quality, mainly by soil organic matter build-up. Resource conservation technologies in rice crop appear to be appealing options to achieve sustainable and intensive crop production under different agro-ecological environments because they use available resources efficiently and maintain soil fertility. However, there is a need for wider scale testing of these new technologies under diverse production systems, as the RCT’s technologies are site specific and therefore appraisal of RCT’s is important to have significant adoption.