Abstract

Considering sustainable agriculture as the keystone of social and economic prosperity, promotion of Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) has been one of the pioneer steps in the Punjab Government’s 2023-24 Budget. In the present study based on field survey of it was found that use of all the inputs was lower on DSR farms as compared to conventional Puddled Transplanted Rice (PTR) farms except seed, plant protection chemicals and some micro-nutrients. Though the yield in DSR (2769 kg per acre) was marginally lower than PTR (2801.3 kg per acre), the net returns over variable cost were higher by about 13 per cent in DSR (Rs 31482.14 per acre) than PTR (Rs 27788.41 per acre) because of lower variable costs involved in DSR. The cost in production of one kg grain using DSR was found to be lower (Rs 8.43 per kg) by about 15 per cent than in PTR (Rs 9.88 per kg) and the input energy involved in the same was Rs 7.84 MJ as compared to 8.86 MJ indicating that DSR has the potential to increase farmer’s income and save scarce resources. DSR technology is a viable alternative to overcome the problems of rising cost of cultivation, labour and water shortages for sustainable rice production yet it has not been adopted at a very large scale. There is need for more research in development of high yielding rice cultivars suitable for DSR along with ensured and timely availability of agro-inputs and machinery. Also, there is a need to 3 generate more awareness of recommended DSR production practices among the farmers for its speedy adoption and thus achieving sustainable production.