SEMI DRY METHOD OF RICE CULTIVATION
In Anantapur district, canal irrigated red soil farming situation occupies 3rd place covering 2.2% of the total cultivable area. Tungabadra high level canal is the major source of canal irrigation. Normally, the release of canal water occurs during August II FN to I FN of September and hence farmers begin to raise rice nurseries from II FN of july to I FN of August and transplanting will be done during I FN of September after release of canal water. In case of delay in the release of canal water due to reasons like late monsoons, the transplanting of rice seedlings will also be delayed and seedlings with more age will be transplanted. Also, due to transplanting in large areas, the demand for labour will be more, increasing the cost of cultivation. In order to overcome the above constraints, an observational trial on semi dry method of rice cultivation was conducted at in an area of 0.4 ha at KVK farm during 2010-11.
In this method, initially after ploughing the field and leveling, the paddy seed@ 50 kg/ha is sown using seed drill at 27.5X10 cm spacing after the receipt of monsoon during II FN of July. Gap filling of seedlings will be done at 10 DAS and to avoid problem of weeds, intercultivation with Danti guntaka is done at 20 DAS and 40 DAS. The crop is grown like irrigated dry crop till the canal water is released and after receipt of canal water, the practices for normal rice cultivation holds good for semi dry method also.
During first year of practice,5020kg/ha grain yield and 5580 kg/ha of fodder yield was obtained , where as in normal method, 2945 kg/ha of grain yield and 3240 kg/ha of fodder yield was obtained which means 71% increase in grain yield. Keeping in view of this, the demonstration was repeated during 2011 at KVK farm and 36% higher yields were obtained and farmers after observing this trial, have adopted this method at Regadakothur in 3.6 ha. During 2012-13 also this method is carried out in large scale at KVK farm and farmers from Kottalapalli, Venkatampalli have adopted this method in 4 ha and obtained 15% increased yields. There was a saving of aprox. Rs. 8900/- per ha on cost of cultivation.
Keeping in view of the merits of this technology, vertical spread of the technology has to be done in large scale in the entire aycut area of TB HLC canal to improve the productivity and area under rice crop.
