Economics of climate resilient practice in Rice: A case of direct seeded rice in Andhra Pradesh, India

Rice is an important crop for billions of people and Asia is the biggest consumer of rice to an extent of 90% of the total world rice production. Most of the irrigated land in the world is under rice crop. On the other hand, water availability is also affected due to the climate change and variability. Rice is also labour-intensive crop and requires about 200 labour days per hectare. Timely availability of labour and water for various activities of rice is becoming a problem. Hence, to overcome labour shortage and sustain rice production with less water, the recent phenomenon observed in Andhra Pradesh state is the Direct Seeded Rice. Field level observations from 2010-14 found that the cost reduction in direct seeded rice mainly comes from skipping the initial activities like puddling, nursery raising, transplantation cost compared to traditional transplantation method. The timely operations and reduced cost of cultivation are driving forces in direct seeded rice adoption. The cost benefit ratio also indicates that Rs 10000-25000 additional returns per hectare in Direct seeded rice is realised compared to transplantation method.