The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) will extend its pilot project on enhancing rice productivity to a few more districts of Uttar Pradesh.
The Systematic Rice Intensification (SRI) project aims at increasing productivity of paddy crop, helping UP find solution to the problem of low productivity and the resultant food insecurity. The project has already been launched in Moradabad.
“SRI involves techniques like transplantation of very young seedlings, while avoiding trauma to roots at the time of transplantation,” D P Misra, chief general manager - UP region, Nabard, said.
SRI needs less agricultural inputs than conventional cultivation methods. Farmers who adopted this technology have reported a 25-60 per cent growth in production of paddy, while reducing the cost of cultivation by 40-50 per cent, he added.
The most novel aspect is reduction of plant population drastically from 50-200 plants per sqm to 16-25 plants per sqm, so that root canopy gets adequate room to grow and suck nutrients and sunlight.
Nabard has partnered Prathama Bank, Moradabad, for the demonstration of technology in Taharpur block of the district.
In SRI, growing plants are provided with sufficient but not excess water. Active soil aeration improves crop performance substantially. The enhancing organic matter in the soil cultivates the growth performance of the crop.
During 2008-09, an estimated 6 million hectares was under paddy crop in the state, while the production was about 13 million tonnes.
The SRI technique was followed by 200 farmers covering a project area of 70 acres in Moradabad. In 2009-10, the project is being extended to three more districts namely Rampur, Jyotiba Phule Nagar and Sant Kabir Nagar in association with Baroda Purvi Gramin Bank, a Bank of Baroda sponsored institution. About 2,000 farmers will be associated with the project that has received a grant of Rs 2 crore.
