India is changing how rice is grown. The government is promoting Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR), a method where seeds are sown directly into the soil, eliminating the need for transplanting. This technique conserves water, reduces labour, and lowers harmful emissions. The goal is ambitious: implement DSR across 10 million hectares as part of a broader push for sustainable agriculture.
While the method holds environmental promise, adoption remains limited. Only about 25% of rice farmers have embraced DSR so far. The key hurdles include low and inconsistent yields, limited awareness, and farmer concerns over adopting unproven techniques.
In rural India, where 85% of farmers are small and marginal (owning less than 2 hectares), the shift is even slower. These farmers often lack access to modern machinery, rely on informal seed markets, and depend on age-old practices passed down through generations. A 2023 field study in eastern Uttar Pradesh revealed that only 12% of smallholders had even heard of DSR, let alone tried it.
Traditionally, rice cultivation involves nursery preparation, ploughing, puddling, and transplanting seedlings into flooded fields. This consumes enormous amounts of water, up to 5,000 litres per kg of rice, and releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas. DSR, by contrast, eliminates puddling, helping conserve up to 30% of irrigation water and significantly reducing methane emissions.
“DSR is a climate-smart and water-saving alternative,” said Dr. M.L. Jat, Secretary in the Department of Agricultural Research and Education and Director-General of ICAR. He added that scaling the technique would require strong research support and rural education initiatives.
Yet rural farmers remain cautious. In districts like Moga (Punjab) and Ambedkar Nagar (UP), farmers interviewed cited a lack of skilled labour, fear of crop failure, and absence of local demonstration farms as key barriers. Most smallholders depend on predictable yields to repay loans or support household consumption, leaving little room for experimentation.
Moreover, DSR is machinery-intensive. A DSR seed drill costs around ₹70,000, a steep price for rural farmers without credit access. In contrast, transplanting is labour-intensive but familiar and locally supported by government subsidies and procurement systems.
The challenge is particularly acute in the eastern and southern states, where literacy levels among farmers are lower and agricultural extension services are sparse. Only 17% of rural households report receiving any formal advice from agricultural officers, according to NSSO data. This disconnect undermines awareness and trust in newer methods like DSR.
To support the transition, the Union Agriculture Ministry is investing heavily in sustainable farming research. The current allocation stands at ₹43.42 crore, the highest so far. However, experts say money alone won’t shift the needle in villages. What's needed is on-ground demonstration, local champions, and DSR-ready infrastructure, including shared machinery banks.
States like Punjab, Haryana, and parts of Uttar Pradesh, regions battling groundwater depletion, stand to benefit the most. Yet these are also strongholds of traditional paddy farming, backed by policies that incentivize water-intensive cultivation.
For DSR to succeed in India’s rural heartland, policymakers must make sustainability economically attractive and socially acceptable. That means designing subsidies for DSR equipment, tailoring crop insurance schemes for early adopters, and reworking procurement norms to include dry-seeded paddy.
The future of India’s rice fields may lie in dry soil, not flooded paddies. But for millions of rural farmers, that future depends on trust, training, and tangible support. Without that, sustainability will remain a distant ideal, noble but not yet sown in the furrows of everyday farming.
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