Jagtial: Farmers asked to adopt Direct Seeded Rice technology for paddy cultivation

Jagtial: Farmers in the district have been advised to employ dry Direct Seeded Rice technology for paddy cultivation for better results.

A demonstration and awareness programme on the sowing of paddy with fermi cum seed drill was made at Polasa Regional Agriculture Station (RARS) at Polasa in Jagtial on Thursday, to educate the farmers about the technology.

MLA, Dr M Sanjay Kumar attended the programme and suggested the farmers to adopt the new technology which would help to save seed quantity, water and labour costs. Tractors fitted with seed drillers were employed for dry cultivation. Without any field preparatory work, soil was tilled, and seeds were sown at the same time. More and more farmers were going for it, he added.

Unlike traditional methods, where the fields have to be in wet condition, in dry direct cultivation, tractors plough the land and seed was sowed directly into the soil at the same time, explained the RARS Associate Director of Research, Dr P Jagan Mohan.

Advantage of this method was that seeds were sown at uniform depth in rows and uniform spacing between the rows. In conventional methods about 20 to 25 kgs seeds were required while in direct seed technology only 8 to10 kgs seeds would be enough for one acre.

The MLA appreciated the efforts made by Dr Mohan in educating the farmers about the new technology and suggested making presentations about direct seed technology at Rythu Vedikas across the district. District Agricultural Officer, Dr Suresh, Rythu Bandhu Samithi district coordinator, Ravinder Reddy, MPP, Palepu Raju, PACS Chairman Ram Reddy and others were present.