Performance of Rice in Different Methods of Crop Establishment in Vizianagaram District of Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

In Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh manual transplanting is the popular method of
crop establishment in rice growing areas, the method more laborious leads to increase in the cost of
cultivation and also delays planting due to scarcity of labour. Machine transplanting of young seedlings
or direct seeding of sprouted seeds with the help of eight row drum seeder reduces labor, fastens planting
operation, and avoids late planting. DAATT Centre Vizianagaram, conducted ten front line
demonstrations on machine planting and direct seeding of sprouted paddy using eight row drum seeder
and direct seeding of sprouted paddy by broadcasting consecutively for three years during rabi 2012-13,
2013-14 and 2014-15. The results revealed that the increase in rice grain yield of machine planting and
direct seeding drum seeder method were 12.3, 3.9 percent, respectively, however direct seeding by
broadcasting method yielded 3.1% lesser yield compared to transplanted rice. The benefit cost ratio were
1.67, 2.03, 1.99 and 1.88 in manual transplanting, machine transplanting planting and direct seeding of
sprouted paddy seed by drum seeder method and direct seeding sprouted paddy seed by broadcasting,
respectively.