Agronomic and environmental determinants of direct seeded rice in South Asia

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the staple food of more than 50% of the world’s population. Manual puddled transplanted rice (PTR) system is still the predominant method of rice establishment. However, due to declining water tables, increasing water scarcity, water, labor- and energy-intensive nature of PTR, high labor wages, adverse effects of puddling on soil health and succeeding crops, and high methane emissions, this production system is becoming less profitable. These factors trigger the need for an alternative crop establishment method. The direct-seeded rice (DSR) technique is gaining popularity because of its low input demand compared to PTR. It is done by sowing pre-germinated seeds in puddled soil (wet-DSR), standing water (water seeding), or dry seeding on a prepared seedbed (dryDSR). DSR requires less water and labor (12–35%), reduces methane emissions (10–90%), improves soil physical properties, involves less drudgery and production cost (US$9–125 per hectare), and gives comparable yields. Upgraded short-duration and high-yielding varieties and efficient nutrient, weed, and resource management techniques encouraged the farmers to switch to DSR culture. However, several constraints are associated with this shift: more weeds, the emergence of weedy rice, herbicide resistance, nitrous oxide emissions, nutrient disorders, primarily N and micro-nutrients, and an increase in soil-borne pathogens lodging etc. These issues can be overcome if proper weed, water, and fertilizer management strategies are adopted. Techniques like stale bed technique, mulching, crop rotation, Sesbania co-culture, seed priming, pre-emergence and post-emergence spray, and a systematic weed monitoring program will help reduce weeds. Chemical to biotechnological methods like herbicide-resistant rice varieties and more competitive allelopathic varieties will be required for sustainable rice production. In addition, strategies like nitrification inhibitors and deep urea placement can be used to reduce N2O emissions. Developing site and soil-specific integrated packages will help in the broader adoption of DSR and reduce the environmental footprint of PTR. The present paper aims to identify the gaps and develop the best-bet agronomic practices and develop an integrated package of technologies for DSR, keeping in mind the advantages and constraints associated with DSR, and suggest some prospects. Eco-friendly, cost-effective DSR package offers sustainable rice production systems with fewer resources and low emissions.