Line-Sown Direct Seed Rice: A Climate Resilient Strategy for Food Security

Introducing the line-sown DSR method of cultivation is proving to be viable and profitable because it is economical, labour friendly and assures a much greater yield to the farmers of EIP fighting against poverty, malnutrition and starvation

Context

T he East India Plateau (EIP) comprises much of the state of Jharkhand and parts of adjoining West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. EIP is characterized by high but variable rainfall (1,100–1,600 mm, 80 percent of which is received from June to September), frequent and sometimes long dry spells within the monsoon, little irrigation, high runoff and soil erosion, infertile soil, terraced mono-cropped paddy lands and subsistence agriculture.

The area suffers low crop yield resulting in food-grain insecurity and endemic poverty. Rice is the staple food crop and the traditional cropping system is mono-crop, rain-fed rice production, which has high climate-related risk and is particularly vulnerable to subtle changes in rainfall distribution, associated with climate change. The pressure of the increasing population has pushed rice cultivation to the medium up-lands, but these lands are not suited for transplanted rice production systems. Cropping in the post-rain season (rabi) is limited due to the lack of irrigation resources and uncontrolled grazing by village cattle and goats. The main monsoon crop (kharif) is rice (overwhelmingly so for the poorer farmers) and usually, very small areas are used for cultivating pulses, oilseeds and maize.

Most villagers achieve only 50–60 per cent of their food-grain requirement, forcing migration in the non-monsoon season to earn some off-farm income at the cost of social upheaval. The outcome of this is widespread malnutrition, limited medical care and low levels of literacy. Perhaps, not surprisingly, the region is a stronghold for leftwing extremist groups.