New technique changes traditional rice growing

LOS BAÑOS, Philippines -- One of the most traditional, but back-breaking, scenes in Asian agriculture is slowly disappearing as an increasing number of rice growers adopt new farming practices. Images of men and women stooped over in rice paddies transplanting young plants have been part of the region's agricultural landscape for generations.

Recent developments in rice production technology as well as new economic trends, however, are encouraging farmers to shift from traditional transplanting to direct seeding. This change is sowing method is expected to have a big impact on Asian rice production efforts and on the region's economies.

This is because one of the main forces driving such changes has been shrinking resources in the region, especially available land and water. In theory, the more widespread the introduction of direct-seeding techniques, the more land and water are conserved.

Direct seeding is already the dominant sowing method used by farmers in Sri Lanka and Malaysia. Its importance as a leading method of crop establishment has also increased during the past three decades in the Philippines, Thailand, and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. Transplanting, however, remains the major method used in other rice-producing countries in the region.

Sowing dry seeds on dry or unsaturated soil is called dry seeding, whereas wet seeding involves sowing pregerminated seeds on puddled soils. In both cases, seeds are sown directly; thus, the dry-and wet-seeding methods are often jointly referred to as direct seeding. Traditional transplanting, on the other hand, involves replanting rice seedlings grown in nurseries.

Agricultural economist Sushil Pandey and assistant scientist Lourdes Velasco from the Philippine-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said the trend toward direct seeding has been brought about by "rising wage rates, a growing scarcity of water, the improved availability of chemical weed control agents, and the increasing intensification of rice land."

Dr. Pandey and Ms. Velasco further stressed that the shift in farming methods has also been encouraged by the availability of high-yielding, short-duration varieties that have made the double cropping of rice in humid tropical Asia feasible for the first time -- especially where irrigation during the dry season could be developed.