Evaluation of Non-Puddled and Zero Till Rice Transplanting Methods in Monsoon Rice1

The need to reduce costs of farming and reverse the decline of soil fertility in the multi-cropped farming systems in the Indo-Gangetic plains has led to success in conservation agriculture zero till crop establishment in many winter crops. Yet, attempts to bring direct seeding, reduced till, and conservation agriculture technologies to the following monsoon rice crop has met with mixed result resulting in a mixed conservation agriculture / conventional till system. The problems are many but mostly stem from the fact that most direct seeded rice technologies use heavy tractors and seed drills that must seed well before monsoon rains and even pre-monsoon rains begin in order to enter the fields. Compounding this problem is that most farmers and farmlands of the Indo-Gangetic plains have little capacity for water control, either from supply side or drainage. For conservation agriculture direct seeding technologies in lowland rice areas, this lack of control means that early sown, newly emerging direct seeded rice seedlings are: 1) at risk from drought; and or 2) at risk from prolonged submergence, literally drowning from early monsoon rains in fields that that have no drainage. The main objectives of the experiment, begun at NWRP, Bhairahawa Nepal were to compare three reduced till and zero till transplanted rice with an