The country's rice production can easily increase to about 130 million tonnes by 2020 if trials for cultivating paddy through drip irrigation are successful, according to Jain Irrigation.
At present, drip irrigation is being used for cultivation of sugarcane and horticultural crops over 34 lakh hectares in the country. Now, for the first time, Jain Irrigation, one of the world's largest micro-irrigation system manufacturers, is experimenting with the technology for paddy cultivation in India and abroad.
"... If a minimum ten per cent (especially rainfed area) of the total paddy area of 43.5 million hectares is brought under drip irrigation, then rice output can increase to 130 million tonnes by 2020," Jain Irrigation Vice-President (Projects) P Soman told reporters during a field visit to a paddy drip plot in Udumalpet taluk, Coimbatore.
India, the world's second-largest rice producer, harvested a bumper crop of 99.18 million tonnes in 2008-09. However due to the poor monsoon last year, rice output had dipped to 89.31 million tonnes.
Considering the cost of the technology, it would be difficult to implement on a large scale without government subsidy. The technology though is able to save 66 per cent water and 50 per cent power, he said quoting findings of trials in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
There is one-time investment of Rs 57,000 per acre on drip irrigation and this is over and above the paddy production cost of Rs 22,700 per acre, he added.
Water use in drip plots was as little as 32 lakh litres per acre, compared with 90-100 lakh litres per acre under the conventional method of growing paddy in standing water.
Similarly, electricity usage for pumping water was lower at 226 units in drip irrigated plot, against 467 units under the traditional method, Soman further said.
The trials in Andhra Pradesh also proved that paddy yield increased to 3.4 tonnes per acre in drip plots in rainfed areas, against one tonne per acre under the conventional method, it added.
"If we try to bring 4.3 million hectares of upland rainfed area under drip technology, production could rise to 32.2 million tonnes, taking into account the yield of 3.4 tonne/acre seen in AP."
The company said it would continue the field trials in collaboration with various rice research institutes in India and abroad to have enough findings to prove drip irrigation is suitable for paddy cultivation.
