Abstract:
Rice is the staple food of Odisha in terms of area, production and yield. System of
Rice Intensification (SRI) involves adoption of changes in management practices
of rice cultivation creating a favourable condition for crop growth with less
utilization of inputs. Despite the benefits, SRI has not adopted by the farmers as
expected in the state. This paper attempted to analyse the perception of Odisha
farmers regarding major constraints hindering widespread of SRI by different
categories of farmers (i.e. adopters, dropouts and non-adopters) in the state and the
positive impact of SRI. The study indicates that around 70% of farmers had
positive outlook for SRI in terms of yield, profitability and improved soil status
followed by reduced use of critical inputs. Maintaining required water at field
situation, difficulty in mechanical weeding, lack of assured source of irrigation,
covering higher area under mechanical weeder, erratic rainfall, lack of availability
of skilled labour for practicing various methods of SRI particularly transplanting
and weeding, non-availability of sufficient FYM and green manure and bio fertilizers are the major constraints in widespread adoption of SRI as perceived by
the farmers. SRI area expansion hindered mainly because of infeasible land
topography, area saturation and lack of farmers’ interest
