Growing rice in Eastern India: New paradigms of risk reduction and improving productivity

Abstract

Rice is the staple food for the millions of people in eastern India. However, the productivity of the rice-based system in this region is very low, mainly because of abiotic and biotic stresses, variable monsoons, poor agronomic management, and poor access to knowledge. In addition, farmers are affected by a rising scarcity of labor, climate change, and rising production costs. Introducing and promoting high-yielding, drought-, submergence-, and salinity-tolerant rice varieties to withstand the impact of climate change; promoting the wide-scale adoption of efficient crop and resource management systems to enhance productivity and profitability with lower labor, water, and input use; and introducing ICT-based decision tools for nutrient, water, and weed management can help to bridge the yield gap and decrease the risk from farming. Supporting and strengthening entrepreneurship for rural employment generation and increasing access to capital-intensive technologies for smallholder farmers is also important. Capacity building of different stakeholders can further trigger a sustainable transformation in rice farming