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SRI Cultivation under rainfed conditions in Tripura

 

B. I.  Majumder and P. K.  Ghose

State Agricultural Research Station, Arundhutinagar, AGARTALA R= 11; 799 003, Tripura.

 

        &= nbsp;   In Tripura state, rice is grown in kharif season under rainfed conditions in around 1.5 <= span class=3DSpellE>lakh hectares and during boro (rabi) = season, it is cultivated under irrigated condition in 0.5 lakh= ha.  So totally from 2.0 lakh hectares, around 6.5 lakh metric tons of paddy is produced annually in the state.  Still Tripura= is not self sufficient in rice production and around 1.0 lakh metric tons of rice is to be imported annually.

 

        &= nbsp;   To enhance the rice production in the state to make it self sufficient, trials= on System of Rice Intensification (SRI) were initiated in 1999- 2000 by the St= ate Agricultural Research Station.  Trials on basic aspects of SRI were conducted for four seasons at the Research Station Farm till 2001 – 2002.  The package of practices for SRI cultivation were optimized.

 

        &= nbsp;   Subsequently SRI trials were taken up in the farmers’ fields since 2001-2002.  There was a school of thought that= SRI will not work under the rainfed system but the results obtained so far indicate the otherwise.  SRI cultivation has been a great s= uccess in Tripura.

 

        &= nbsp;   The annual rainfall in Tripura is 2500 – 3000= mm with maximum rains during the months of June, July and August. The water management practices recommended have been very well adopted by the rice farmers.

 

        &= nbsp;   The maximum yield obtained in kharif season was 10.= 42 t/ha with the variety MTU-7029 lowest yield in kharif<= /span> season was 6.15 t/ha (varieties MTU-7029 and NDR-359). During boro (rabi) season, maximum yield obtained in farmers’ field was 11.85 t/ha with = the variety IET-9219 and 10.78 t/ha with the variety IR-64.

 

        &= nbsp;   During the four years 2002-2003 to 2005-06, 1452 demonstrations were conducted dur= ing kharif and boro seasons i= n the farmers’ fields. During the current kharif-2006 season, demonstration= s on SRI are organized in 6634 hectares and during the forthcoming boro 2006-07 season, it is envisaged to organize demonstrations on SRI in 11,000 hectares in Tripura.  This method of SRI is becoming very popular with the rice farmers in Tripura state = due to high yields obtained by them under this method of rice cultivation.

 

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