A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF FARMING PRACTICES FOR DRY SEEDED RAIN-FED LOWLAND RICE IN INDIA, INDONESIA, AND MYANMAR

Farmers' traditional dry seeded rice systems were examined: practices were matched to field environments and included ways to address not only weeds, but also poor soil physical properties, water deficit and excess, and poor plant stand. Among others, farmers used pigmented rice cultivars to be able to rogue wild rice and rotated or switched from dry seeded to transplanted rice because of weeds or a too rapid onset of rains. Redistribution of seedlings and manual weeding were used to improve plant stand and soil physical properties in addition to reducing weeds. Farmers' dry-seeding systems did not necessarily reduce labor, but could increase cropping intensity, result in stable yields using low material inputs, or distribute labor demands where some fields are dry seeded and others transplanted. Because of difficult and uncertain environmental conditions, research on direct seeding must build upon farmer practices and knowledge.