Lanie Reyes   |  IRRI Nov 9, 2015

Partners in Tamil Nadu, India, have committed to further disseminating a range of technology options under the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA).

Celebration is an apt title for the event,” said Noel Magor, head of the Impact Acceleration Unit and Training at the International Rice research Institute (IRRI), as he glanced at the text written across the tarpaulin that reads CSISA Tamil Nadu Hub Celebration Workshop. “The CSISA project in Tamil Nadu has accomplished a lot in a short time. Our partners’ contribution has been the key significant aspect of thie success of this work in Tamil Nadu.”

Over the past 5 years, the water- and labor-saving technologies under CSISA have reached more than 25,000 farmers and have covered around 2,800 hectares in Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, and Nagapattinam districts of the Cauvery Delta and the neighboring districts of Ramanathapuram and Sivagangai, in the Tamil Nadu State of southern India. These technologies include laser land leveling, improved and mechanized dry direct seeding of rice, mechanical transplanting of rice under both puddled and nonpuddled conditions, rice crop management, alternate wetting and drying, and line sowing using a multicrop seeder under reduced-tillage conditions. These have helped farmers in Tamil Nadu increase their profits.

“Farmers can save about 40% on the cost of labor because renting a farm machine is cheaper than hiring manual labor,” said R. Ganeshamoorthy, CSISA hub manager in Tamil Nadu. “A farmer’s profit from the dry direct-seeded rice is twice as much as that from the regular way of growing rice. By not puddling the field and using shorter-duration crops, farmers can save water by 25–35%. And, depending on the rice variety, farmers can increase their yields by 7–10%.”

Another technology that is improving the efficiency of crop production is laser land leveling. It has already found its way to the hearts of farmers in the Cauvery Delta because of the precision leveling, uniform crop maturity, and water savings of 30–40%, and increased input-use efficiency

See: http://ricetoday.irri.org/partnerships-linchpin-of-last-mile-delivery-in-tamil-nadu/