Direct seeding of rice with drum seeder is made easy rice cultivation in Visakhapatnam district of North Coastal Zone of Andhra Pradesh

Paddy is major predominant crop during Kharif in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh, cultivated in an area of 1,17,608 ha, out of total cropped area of 1,92,638 ha with productivity of 2664 kg/ha. Farmers grow crop by adopting traditional method of paddy cultivation, use more seed rate, close spacing, late transplanting with over aged seedlings common phenomenon due to erratic rainfall climate change. Scarcity of labour and escalation in labor wages, reduction in labor efficiency are leading to low net returns. In this context DAATT Centre, Visakhapatnam district of ANGRAU, in collaboration with K.V.K., Kondempudi and Department of Agriculture, Visakhapatnam has introduced ‘Drum Seeder technology which is very easy and less labour involved. Drum seeder technology is boon to farmers to save money and time and crop comes to harvest 7-10 days earlier than normal transplanted paddy. DAATT Centre, Visakhapatnam has organized On-Farm Demonstrations (OFDs) in farmer fields in two seasons Kharif,2019 and Rabi,2019-20. Drum seeder technology in paddy recorded 12.49% yield over normal transplanting method of paddy cultivation during Kharif season. The results from the study showed that the farmers realized the 58.19% increase in net income due to increased grain yield by 12.49% with reduction of cost of cultivation by 9.35%, , it could be attributed to reduction in manual labour of 12 man labour and 25 women labour per ha and also increase in yield attributes and yield.