RICE CULTIVATION Introduction : India is an agricultural country. Most of her people are farmers. They produce 3 classes of crops such as Food crops, Commercial crops & Oil seeds. The main food crops of India are Rice, Barely, Wheat & Maize etc. Rice is the staple food of many of the Indians. Rice is obtained from Paddy. There are 75 percent of people used its grain as food. India is the 2nd largest producer of Rice in the world. The crop is cultivated almost in all the states of the country like Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamilnadu, West Bengal, Bihar & Uttar Pradesh are the major rice growing states. Its botanical name is Oryza sativa or Dhana.
CLIMATE REQUIREMENT Rice cultivation is a torrid zone plant. Rice requires an extremely moist soil, either rain fed or artificially flooded. Rice is water loving plant which is grown in North-Eastern states all round the year if water is available either through rain or irrigation. Rice needs relatively high temperature ranging between 25. to 35. c, for optimum growth & development of plants. Depending upon the temperature requirement Rice crop is grown during kharif.
SOIL REQUIREMENT SOIL REQUIREMENT Rice is grown on all sorts of heavy soil types like clay, loam of alluvium nature. Rice requires an extremely moist soil, either rain fed or artificially flooded.
Cultivation Cultivation Cultivation of Rice completely depends on the availability of water. Depending on the amount of rainfall & irrigation facilities, various methods are adopted. Broadcasting & Transplantation are the two common methods in practice.
Broadcasting It is dry or semi dry cultivation. The soil is ploughed 10 to 20 cms deep while it is still dry or partly moist.
Sowing Time Sowing Time Sowing of seeds is done during June to July, immediately followed by another ploughing. Germination of seeds occurs after getting sufficient moisture. When the seeding are 20 to 25 cm high and sufficient water is available in the filed a light ploughing is done. This treatment is called “Beushana”. After this plants are allowed to grow in sufficient water stored in the filed. In case of short duration varieties the second operation (Beushana) is avoided as they come to flower stage after 60 to 70 days.
Transplantation This method is essentially used in the areas where rainfall is much. Seed beds are raised during June, When the soil is dry. Seeds are sown on moisture beds for raising the seedlings. When the seedlings are 21 to 30 days old they are transplanted in puddle fields. To get better results, various qualities of fertilizers are applied both in seed bed and field. Water is essential in rice field throughout its entire period of growth. It is also necessary that the field is allowed to dry up just before the harvesting.
Harvest The crop is harvested by cutting the plants with a sickle. After drying of harvested crop, threshing is done either by hands or by bullock feet of by using thresher. The grains are collected after removal of chaps (grain less paddy) by throwing in the air.
Improved & High yielding varieties for Orissa are as follows, according to their maturity. 1. (A) Early varieties (sarad) – Ratna, Padma, Parijata, Kumar suphla. (Summer season) (B) Medium (Sarad) – Hema, Rajeshwari, Jaya, Kumarsakti, Vijaya. Both the types are ready from June to Dec. 2. (A) Early varieties (Dalua) – Pusa 2-21, Bala, Cauvery, Parijata. (Winter season) (B) Medium – Ratna, Kumar, Supriya & Krishna. Both the types are ready from Dec to April. 3. (A) Early Varieties (Beali) – Pusa 2-21, Bala, Cauvery & Parijata, Ready from April/May to September in upland. 1 st Month is for sowing & last month is for harvesting & threshing in the above varieties.
Sachidananda Biswal (Asst. Tr., Science ) Khirod Naik (Asst. Tr., Science) Subhendu Pattanayak( Asst. Tr., English)