Developments in direct seeding of rainfed rice in the High Barind Tract

A key development challenge in the drought-prone rainfed agriculture of the Barind Tract of northwest Bangladesh is to simultaneously improve the reliability and yield of monsoon rice while improving total system productivity by increasing the area planted to drought-tolerant postrice crops. Research trials and field-scale evaluations by farmers have demonstrated that dry direct seeding or wet seeding of pregerminated seed reduces labor for crop establishment and results in rice yields similar to or higher than those of conventional transplanting and advances harvest by a week to 10 days. An earlier harvest has the potential to reduce the risk of terminal drought in rice when the monsoon ends abruptly and increases the opportunity for establishing a postrice crop of chickpea on residual moisture. Herbicide use is essential with direct seeding and this further reduces rice production costs. This modified rice/legume system, using direct seeding, is knowledge-intensive. Widespread sustained adoption will depend on farmers undertaking timely tillage, adequate land leveling, and timely application of herbicides.