Officials of Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society ( JEEViKA ), a community-driven, anti-poverty project implemented by the Government of Bihar, participated in a training program for enhancing their knowledge and creating master trainers on direct seeded rice (DSR) technology. The program, conducted by the International Rice Research Institute South Asia Regional Centre (IRRI-SARC) and the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia ( CSISA ) on 11 – 12 May, trained 14 livelihood farm managers and program manager who work directly with women farmers in the six districts under the JEEViKA.
This awareness cum hands-on training program was organized to educate the district officials of JEEViKA on the benefits of DSR technology. DSR is a viable option for small and marginal farmers, especially women, for reducing drudgery, labor requirement, and cost of crop establishment compared to manually transplanted rice. DSR delivers faster planting and maturing, conserves scarce resources like water, is more conducive to mechanization, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
“Increasing water scarcity due to climate change and competition from urbanization coupled with other factors like labor shortage make traditional rice production unsustainable,” said Direct-Seeded Rice Consortium Global Coordinator Virender Kumar “New ideas and innovations in rice cultivation are critically needed to meet rising demand and ensure food security.”
Although widely practiced in the Americas and some countries in Southeast Asia, productivity challenges have limited its wide-scale adoption in Asia in general and South Asia in particular. There is a need for an integrated and scientific approach to make DSR socio-economically and environmentally sustainable, according to ISARC Director Sudhanshu Singh.
”DSR is emerging as an alternative crop establishment method in India’s northwest states,” Dr. Singh said. “Punjab and Haryana have shown tremendous progress in DSR adoption. Upscaling of…