Seeding the rice success: Technology and policy power India's rise

Since India is also the world's second-largest producer, exporter of wheat, it merits to be counted among the world's major food grain powerhouses, and a key player in the international food market

With an estimated rice production of over 149 million tonnes this year, India has become the world’s largest producer of this most consumed staple cereal, relegating China to second position. India has also been the top rice exporter since 2012, accounting for nearly 40 per cent of the global rice trade. Besides, the government holds a massive rice stock of about 59.5 million tonnes, more than four times the buffer stocking norm of 13.5 million tonnes for this time of the year. Since India is also the world’s second-largest producer, and an established, even if somewhat irregular, exporter of wheat, it merits to be counted among the world’s major food grain powerhouses, and a key player in the international food market.

 

This is a remarkable feat, especially for a country that has to feed a mammoth population of 1.4 billion and has a farm sector comprising largely small and marginal landholders. The credit for this is attributable to all stakeholders in the rice sector, particularly farm scientists, for developing, and continuously updating, crop-production technology, including improved varieties, and the farmers for readily embracing the new technologies despite the scale constraints. Favourable food-management policies, involving the supply of subsidised inputs and assured marketing of the produce at pre-fixed prices (read minimum support prices), also contributed to it. 

Though the Green Revolution began in the 1960s with the breakthrough in wheat output, thanks to the availability of dwarf and more productive Mexican wheat varieties, which formed the basis for evolving indigenous crossbred strains, rice did not take long to follow suit. The upturn in rice production, too, was triggered by the introduction in 1966 of a high-yielding variety, IR-8, which was developed at the International Rice Research Institute, a Philippines-based organisation, by crossbreeding an Indonesian strain “Peta” with the Chinese variety “Dee Geo Woo Gen”. Some of the IR-8’s desirable traits, including short and strong stems to prevent the plants from falling down due to winds and heavy doses of fertilisers, were later incorporated into Indian strains to evolve initial high-yielding rice varieties like Jaya and Ratna, which laid the foundations for the rice revolution. The impact of these, and the subsequently bred improved varieties, was dramatic, leading to a quick spurt in rice output. India now has one of the world’s most extensive rice-breeding programmes to constantly churn out newer rice varieties having higher productivity, better grain quality, and greater resilience against pests, pathogens, and climate-induced stresses. 

The past one decade alone has seen rice output rising from 105 million tonnes to the new peak of 149 million tonnes. No doubt, the area under rice has expanded from 43.5 million hectares to 51.5 million hectares during this period, but the major contributor to this growth is the surge in crop productivity, from 3.6 tonnes to 4.32 tonnes a hectare. Though the present Indian average yield still falls short of the global mean productivity of 4.47 tonnes a hectare, the gap is bridgeable with the technology that is available. Rice yields of 5-6 tonnes a hectare are quite common in agriculturally progressive states like Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh. The yield potential of the available rice varieties is even higher, indicating scope for further increases in rice production to solidify India’s position as the world’s leading rice producer. 

However, there are also worrisome aspects of rice farming, and they can potentially jeopardise the sustainability of the rice revolution. Most paddy growers apply much more water than is needed for the crop, thereby disturbing the hydrological profile of intensive rice-growing areas, especially in the north-western and southern regions. The over-use of water enhances greenhouse gas emissions from paddy fields, exacerbating environmental concerns. On average, about 15,000 litres of water is used to grow 1 kg of paddy. This is 2.5 times the requirement of 600 litres. Consequently, as much as 45-50 per cent of irrigation water is currently being consumed by paddy alone. It is, therefore, imperative to improve the water-use efficiency of rice cultivation through systems, such as direct seeding, and alternative wetting and drying of paddy fields. 

The direct-seeding method involves sowing seeds in moist soil instead of raising them in a nursery and then transplanting the seedlings in flooded fields. Subsequently, too, the field is just kept wet, rather than inundated, all the time. In the alternative wetting and drying system, the field is flooded once, and then allowed to dry before irrigating it again. These systems help save 30-60 per cent water, besides reducing greenhouse-gas emission and lowering the requirement of fertilisers, pesticides, and labour, without sacrificing crop yield. Promoting such technologies on a wider scale is vital to ensure enduring growth in rice production, and consolidating India’s position as the foremost producer and exporter of rice.    surinder.sud@gmail.com