Organic rice: potential production strategies, challenges and prospects

Organic farming is rapidly gaining recognition worldwide as a promising means to offer healthier food and to ensure environmental sustainability. Currently, organic produce including organic rice is in huge demand owing to its potential to fetch premium price in the global market. Despite the fact that rice performs well under organic production system, a set of constraints including nitrogen stress at critical growth stages, unavailability of rapidly mineralizable organic amendments, lack of appropriate varieties and intense crop–weed competition pose major challenges to realize the potential yield. Use of diverse organic nutrient sources including the split application of fast mineralizable nutrient-rich manures (vermicompost, poultry manure), green manures and bio-fertilizers can supply optimum nutrients in organic rice system. In parallel, development and deployment of rice varieties having response to organic nutrient inputs, resistance to diseases/insects and ability to compete with weeds can help minimize the risk of crop failure. Further, higher emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in organic rice field deserves greater attention in view of environmental sustainability. Strategic water management and selection of appropriate organic amendments could help address this issue. However, a substantial research gap still exists demanding a deeper understanding of the organic rice system in order to register higher yield gains. This review article outlines the latest advances in organic rice production system with an emphasis on nutrient supply and ensuing dynamics, the outflow of GHGs, pest dynamics, produce quality and key attributes of rice cultivars for organic cultivation. We underscore the urgency for alignment of modern agricultural techniques with organic rice production to improve both the system productivity and the produce quality along with effectively avoiding the risks associated with in discriminate use of chemicals in agriculture.