Districtwise Promising Technologies for Rainfed Rice based Production System in India

Abstract

In India, rice area stretches from 790 to 900 E longitude and 160 to 280 N latitude. It is cultivated as a purely rainfed upland crop in West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, etc., where the monsoon is precarious and its distribution is often erratic. Rainfed rice in India constitutes up to 55% of the total rice area. Of this, 15% area is upland and 33% low land. The remaining 7% is flood prone. The uplands, lowlands, flood prone areas and irrigated areas contribute 5, 30, 4 and 61% to the total rice production. Thus low lands become the most important rainfed rice ecosystem in the productivity context. One ton per ha of rice productivity under rainfed conditions has crossed only in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. The States like Bihar, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh still continues to be below one ton barrier. However, the productivity in irrigated areas of these states has exceeded the one ton barrier. Upland rice area is declining due to drought, weed problems, instability in production, declining soil fertility and productivity, and development of irrigation facilities. As per recent estimate the upland rice area is around 5.50 M ha in India and there has been shift in area from minor millets to upland rice due to availability of improved varieties. Upland rice is mainly grown in acid upland soils in Uttar Pradesh and north-eastern India, red lateritic soils of western Orissa alluvial plains of coastal Orissa, and eastern Uttar Pradesh. Phosphorus is one of the major limiting nutrients in acid uplands and lateritic soils. Most of the upland rice areas are left fallow after harvest but there are other production systems like Jhum cultivation in northeastern region, horsegram (Kulthi) after upland rice in Orissa, and intercropping or mixed cropping with pigeonpea that are more sustainable systems for improving soil quality of upland rice (Singh, 2002).