Rice planting system in Nepal
Arjun Pandey
Department of plant and soil science
Oklahoma State University
Outline
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•
•
•
Introduction
Agriculture in Nepal
Rice Planting System
SRI and Conventional
Method
• Problems
• Conclusion
Introduction:
Background:
 Area of Nepal-147181sq. Km.
 Total farming Population-65%
 23% of total area is the most fertile land where cereal production is mainly
concentrated.
 Agriculture Contributes to about 33.8% to national GDP.(World Bank,2010)
 Provides part and fulltime employment opportunities to 65.5% of its
population.
 Elevation ranges from 70 m (230 ft) to 8848 m (29,029 ft) above sea level.
 Tremendous variation in climate (tropical to temperate) as a result of
variation in altitude. There are four main climatic seasons:
Spring : March-May
Summer : June-August
Autumn : September-November
Winter : December-February
Physiographic Regions and Cropping
System
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•
•
•
•
Himalayan
High mountain
Middle mountain
Siwalik
Terai
Agriculture in Nepal
 Among agriculture crops rice is main crop, cultivated on nearly 1.55 M Ha of
lands.
 Total production of rice 2008/09 was 4.3 millions of tons, with average
productivity of 2907kg/ha(world average is about 4204kg/ha)
Problems of rice cultivation
• Older generation of seeds
• High Production cost
• Low doses of fertilizers
• Manual/bullock- Based cultivation
• Fraction of land(small holding=0.24ha)
• Distribution of land
• Low Irrigation facility
• Poor Farmers(% of population below international poverty line of
US$1.25 per day, 1994-2008*=55) (Unicef,2010)
Rice cultivation system:
 Upland rice cultivation:- 9% of total rice
cultivation area is under upland.
 Lowland rice cultivation:
 Major practice
 Cultivated 2 times in a year
Different methods of rice planting
• Direct planting- In Nepal it is not
practiced yet, and research is going on.
• Transplanting
Two ways of transplanting is popular in
Nepal.
 Conventional Transplanting
 Modern Transplanting(SRI)
Conventional Rice Transplanting
System
• Farmers Use more than
60 kg of seeds/ha
• Transplant very old
seedlings(30-45 days)
• Plants many seedlings
8-10/hill.
Modern Rice Planting System(SRI)
• System of Rice Intensification-Evolved in
Madagascar, over 20-yr period
• In Nepal introduced in 1998
• One seedling per hill.
Why SRI ??
Area Production and Yield inNepal
10
5
yield
production
area
8
4
Area/Yield/Production
6
4
2
0
3
2
1
0
2009
2007
2005
2003
2000
Year
SRI Yield (T/Ha)
Conventional Yields (T/Ha)
1995
1990
1985
PRACTICE/PURCHASE
SEED
COST
CONVENTIONAL
RICE(RS/HA)
COSTS,SRI
RICE(RS/HA)
DIFFERENCE(RS/H
A)
125
1250
1125
50
500
450
LAND PREPARATION
7500
7500
0
COMPOST
4800
2400
-2400
FERTILIZERS
1500
3000
1500
TRANSPLANTING
1250
1500
250
IRRIGATION
200
400
200
WEEDING
750
1350
600
PESTICIDE
0
500
500
HARVESTING
1750
1500
-250
TOTAL COST
17925
19900
1975
REVENUE,GRAIN
60450
23250
-37200
3000
3000
0
TOTAL REVENUE
63450
26250
-37200
NETPROFIT
45525
6350
-39175
NURSERY PREPARATION
REVENUE,BY PRODUCT
Five Principles of SRI
Comparisons of factor effects:
• Young seedling
8 days-6.28 t/ha
vs.
20 days-3.80 t/ha
• Water management effect
Water control -5.75 t/ha vs.
Flooding- 4.34 t/ha
• Fertilization
Compost-5.49 t/ha
vs. NPK fertilizer -4.48 t/ha
• Plants per hill effect
1 plant/hill- 5.43 t/ha vs. 3 plants/hill- 4.65 t/ha
• Spacing effect
30x30cm- 5.08 t/ha vs.
25x25 cm 5.00 t/ha
source-Uphoff, 2006
Twelve Techniques of SRI
Nursery Preparation
Marking the area
Uprooting Seedlings
Planting on the spot
Intercultural operation
Technology Promotion
Leaf Color Chart
Urea Super Granule
Seed Production and Preservation
Alternate Wet and Dry(AWD) irrigation System
Pheromone trap
http://wn.com/samardeen17
Conclusion
SRI method is found to be more productive than
conventional method
Main components for higher yield of rice is younger
seedlings, fewer seedlings /hill, wider spacing and AWD
irrigation
Tools and machines supply/availability for making and
weeding are every useful for adopting
SRI in larger areas