Crop management and physiology

The feasibility of direct seeding rice in Punjab

State of India
Harjeet Singh Brar, M.S. Bhullar, and U.S. Walia
Department of Agronomy, Punjab Agricultural University
Ludhiana 141004, India

Rice cultivation in Punjab, India, the grain bowl of the country, mainly involves
transplanting. About 2.6 million ha in Punjab are planted to rice, even though the
state’s water resources can support only 1.6 million ha. This has led to excessive
pumping of groundwater to meet the water needs of transplanted paddy,
reaching an alarming 110% recharge capacity, thereby resulting in a decline of
the water table at the rate of 0.23 m per year (Gupta et al 1995). In the last 2 years,
this went up to 0.60 m per year (Anonymous 2009); the consequence is water
scarcity and higher pumping cost. This raises serious concerns about the
sustainability of rice-based cropping systems in the Punjab.
Dry-seeded rice sown into unpuddled soil saves 20–37% of irrigation
water used for transplanted rice (Gupta et al 2003, Singh et al 2003). A field
experiment was conducted during the 2008 wet season at Ludhiana (30°56′N,
75°52′E) to see whether direct-seeded rice could yield the same as traditional
transplanted rice. Soil was loamy sand with pH 7.1, EC 0.18 dS m–1, organic
carbon 0.32%, and available N, P, and K 252.7, 12.9, and 146.1 kg ha–1,
respectively. The total amount of rainfall received during the season was 867.5
mm. Six sowing dates (five for direct seeding at 0, 7, 14, 21, and 28 d after
nursery sowing [DANS] and one for transplanting at 28 DANS); two varieties
(short-duration [125 d] PR115 and long-duration [144 d) PAU 201); and two
weed control treatments (three hand hoeings at 20, 40, 60 d; application of
preemergence herbicide pendimethalin at 0.75 kg ha–1, followed by bispyribac-
sodium at 0.030 kg ha–1 25 d after sowing/transplanting) were evaluated. The
trial was laid out in a split-plot design using sowing dates as main plots and
combinations of varieties and weed control treatments as subplots. There were
three replications. Statistical analysis was done to calculate the least significant
difference or critical difference at the 5% level of significance for sowing date,
variety, and weed control treatments separately in order to compare differences
due to treatment means. The data were subjected to analysis using statistical
package CPCS-1 (Cheema and Singh 1991). Dry seed (50 kg ha–1) was drilled

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directly in a moist seedbed at 2–3-cm depth at 20-cm row spacing. The rice
nursery was sown on 5 June and transplanted 28 d later at 20 cm × 15 cm in a
puddled field. Transplanted plots were kept flooded during the first 2 wk;
irrigation water was then applied 2 d after standing water disappeared. The soil
was kept moist in the directly seeded plots.
Direct-seeded rice sown at the same time as the nursery had the same
grain yield as transplanted rice (Table 1). The delay in direct seeding by 7 or
more days after nursery sowing significantly reduced grain yield. Direct-seeded
rice had more effective tillers, whereas transplanted rice had longer and heavier
panicles. In economic terms, the transplanting treatment gave a net gain of $13.71
ha–1 compared with rice seeded directly on the same date. This gain increased
with progressive delay in direct seeding; the highest net gain of $410.91 ha–1 was
obtained when rice was seeded directly on the day of transplanting. Both
varieties produced statistically similar grain yield. Compared with the use of
herbicides alone, the three hand hoeings increased grain yield significantly; net
profits were higher by $31.68 ha–1 with herbicides than with three hoeings.

Table 1. Weed dry matter, growth, and yield of two rice genotypes as influenced
by sowing date, variety, and weed control method.
Treatment Weed dry Effective Grains 1,000- Grain Net gain in
matter at tillers panicle–1 seed yield transplanted
harvest m–2 (no.) weight (t ha–1) over direct-
(t ha–1) (no.) (g) seeded crop
($ ha–1)
Sowing date
Direct sowing, 0 DANS 0.867 (0.252)a 492 113.22 23.68 5.048 13.71
(5 June)
Direct sowing, 7 DANS 0.871 (0.260) 492 97.48 22.83 4.621 110.31
Direct sowing, 14 1.050 (0.603) 529 99.47 22.45 4.674 98.31
DANS
Direct sowing, 21 1.293 (1.172) 510 88.95 21.17 3.978 255.95
DANS
Direct sowing, 28 1.182 (0.898) 504 85.87 21.22 3.293 410.91
DANS
Transplanting, 28 0.831 (0.191) 364 125.79 24.19 5.642 –
DANS
LSD (P = 0.05) 0.180 82 14.5 1.77 0.596 –
Variety
PR 115 1.068 (0.641) 483 06.95 22.49 4.466 –
PAU 201 0.992 (0.484) 481 96.64 22.69 4.616 –
LSD (P = 0.05) 0.070 NS 5.7 NS NS –

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Weed control
Herbicide application 1.105 (0.722) 467 103.12 22.35 4.364 –
Hand hoeing 0.950 (0.403) 497 100.47 22.82 4.718 –
LSD (P = 0.05) 0.072 NS NS 0.44 0.214 –
aData subjected to square root transformation. Numbers in parenthesis are means of original
values. DANS = days after nursery sowing.

Considering the combined effect of sowing date, variety, and weed

control, the data showed that short-duration PR 115 seeded directly on the day of
nursery sowing, coupled with herbicides/hand hoeings, had a yield similar to
that of the transplanted crop (Table 2). But this was not true for long-duration
rice PAU 201, which recorded significantly higher grain yield when transplanted
as compared with those on all direct seeding dates. This indicates that short-
duration rice varieties are more suitable for direct seeding. The application of
either two herbicides or three hand hoeings resulted in similar grain yield when
rice was transplanted or directly seeded on the day of nursery sowing. However,
three hand hoeings proved significantly better than herbicide application when
direct seeding of rice was delayed after nursery sowing for both genotypes,
except for PAU 201 (here, herbicide use gave better results than hoeing).

Table 2. Combined effects of sowing date, variety, and weed control on grain
yield (t ha–1).
Sowing date PR 115 PAU 201
Herbicides Hand Herbicides Hand
hoeings hoeings
Direct sowing 0, DANSa (5 5.31 5.42 4.66 4.78
June)
Direct sowing 7, DANS 4.50 5.15 4.97 4.32
Direct sowing 14, DANS 3.66 4.90 5.11 5.03
Direct sowing 21, DANS 3.53 4.20 3.60 4.58
Direct sowing 28, DANS 3.04 3.47 2.70 3.97
Transplanting 28, DANS 5.76 5.13 5.90 5.79
LSD (P = 0.05) 0.743
aDANS = days after nursery sowing.

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In conclusion, for the irrigated rice production system in Punjab, India,

direct seeding of short-duration rice variety PR 115 on the same day as nursery
sowing and with weeds controlled using preemergence pendimethalin at 0.75 kg
ha–1 followed by bispyribac-sodium at 0.030 kg ha–1 25 d after
sowing/transplanting can be adopted as an alternative to transplanted rice.

References
Anonymous. 2009. Falling water table puts Punjab in ‘danger zone.’ The Tribune, online edition, 9
Nov 2009, Chandigarh, India. www.tribuneindia.com
Cheema HS, Singh B. 1991. Software statistical package CPCS-1. Department of Statistics, Punjab
Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India.
Gupta RD, Mahajan G, Goyal BR. 1995. Availability and quality of groundwater in Punjab state.
In: Water management. Ludhiana (India): Punjab Agricultural University. p 18-42.
Gupta RK, Naresh RK, Hobbs PR, Ladha JK. 2003. Adopting conservation agriculture in the rice-
wheat system of the Indo-Gangetic plains: new opportunities for saving water. In:
Bouman BAM, Hengsdijk H, Hardy B, Bindraban PS, Tuong TP, Ladha JK, eds. Water-
wise rice production. Proceedings of a Thematic Workshop on Water-Wise Rice
Production, 8-11 Apr 2002. Los Baños (Philippines): International Rice Research Institute.
p 207-222.
Singh AK, Choudhary BU, Bouman BAM. 2003. Effects of rice establishment methods on crop
performance, water use, and mineral nitrogen. In: Bouman BAM, Hengsdijk H, Hardy B,
Bindraban PS, Tuong TP, Ladha JK, eds. Water-wise rice production. Proceedings of a
Thematic Workshop on Water-Wise Rice Production, 8-11 Apr 2002. Los Baños
(Philippines): International Rice Research Institute. p 223-235.

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