Performance of Rice in Different Methods of Crop Establishment in Vizianagaram District of Andhra Pradesh

In Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh manual transplanting is the popular method of crop establishment in rice growing areas, the method more laborious leads to increase in the cost of cultivation and also delays planting due to scarcity of labour. Machine transplanting of young seedlings or direct seeding of sprouted seeds with the help of eight row drum seeder reduces labor, fastens planting operation, and avoids late planting. DAATT Centre Vizianagaram, conducted ten front line demonstrations on machine planting and direct seeding of sprouted paddy using eight row drum seeder and direct seeding of sprouted paddy by broadcasting consecutively for three years during rabi 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15. The results revealed that the increase in rice grain yield of machine planting and direct seeding drum seeder method were 12.3, 3.9 percent, respectively, however direct seeding by broadcasting method yielded 3.1% lesser yield compared to transplanted rice. The benefit cost ratio were 1.67, 2.03, 1.99 and 1.88 in manual transplanting, machine transplanting planting and direct seeding of sprouted paddy seed by drum seeder method and direct seeding sprouted paddy seed by broadcasting, respectively.