Farm level and aggregate economic impact of direct seeded rice in Punjab

The essence of agricultural development is to improve both individual farm household welfare and in the aggregate, achieve desirable economic and social impacts. Despite the availability of literature on the farm level impact of DSR, few studies have attempted to measure the aggregate effects of adoption of DSR at the state level. A survey was conducted during 2015, comprising 150 randomly selected farmers covering three major direct seeded rice districts viz., Sri Muktsar Sahib, Bathinda and Kapurthala of Punjab state of India to understand the farm level and aggregate economic impact of DSR in Punjab. The results showed that the adoption of DSR has reduced the cost of cultivation by about 29% on an average. At the aggregate level, potential benefits from the adoption of DSR are substantial. The survey results reveal that adoption of DSR has resulted in lowering cost of cultivation of rice by Rs. 14,615/-per hectare over the transplanting method. The aggregate monetary benefits in terms of savings in cost of cultivation by adoption of DSR to the adopter farmers in Punjab is estimated to the tune of Rs. 730,750,000 for the year 2015. The findings confirm the positive impacts of DSR and the results support promoting DSR as a strategy to enhance profitability of farmers and also as a water saving technology in the face of depleting water resources for agriculture in general and rice in particular