{"id":11966,"date":"2024-06-04T09:37:37","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T04:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=11966"},"modified":"2025-10-04T18:32:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T13:02:29","slug":"what-is-direct-seeded-rice-dsr-method","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-direct-seeded-rice-dsr-method\/","title":{"rendered":"Direct Seeded Rice (DSR)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Direct Seeded Rice (DSR):<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a<strong> modern rice cultivation technique<\/strong> where rice seeds are <strong>directly sown into the field<\/strong>, replacing the traditional method of transplanting seedlings from a nursery.\n<ul>\n<li>It is an<strong> efficient, <\/strong>and <strong>sustainable method<\/strong> of rice cultivation that offers significant benefits for farmers, the environment, and the economy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>About Herbicide-Tolerant Basmati Rice:<\/strong> ICAR commercialised <strong>non-genetically modified<\/strong> (non-GM) Ht basmati rice. These varieties allow direct application of the <strong>herbicide Imazethapyr<\/strong> due to a mutated <strong>ALS gene.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Scientific debate:<\/strong> Research indicates that <strong>hand weeding<\/strong> at specific intervals (20 and 40 days after sowing) in DSR is more effective and yield-enhancing than the use of Imazethapyr.\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>ICAR\u2019s research favours eco-friendly hand weeding over repeated herbicide applications for weed control and higher seed yield.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Weed diversity and risks: <\/strong>Imazethapyr targets <strong>specific broadleaf weeds (BLW)<\/strong>, not all weed types.\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>Herbicide-resistant weeds may evolve, threatening rice production and food security.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Similar challenges were seen with <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/bt-cotton\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bt-Cotton<\/a> and <strong>pink bollworm resistance.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Historical context: <\/strong>In the <strong>North Western Plains<\/strong> (e.g., Punjab, Haryana), DSR has been long used for growing <strong>Basmati rice.\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Green Revolution<\/strong> promoted water-intensive transplanted rice, causing ecological issues.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Innovations in DSR:<\/strong> From <strong>2014 to 2017<\/strong>, innovations in DSR at <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/indian-agricultural-research-institute\/\" target=\"_blank\">IARI<\/a><strong> Karnal <\/strong>led to the adoption of <strong>TAR-VATTAR technology<\/strong>, which uses climatic factors and effective herbicides like <strong>Pendimethalin<\/strong> to reduce costs and save water.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Recent adoption and impact:<\/strong> During<strong> COVID-19<\/strong>, the labour shortage saw a spike in DSR adoption in Punjab, proving its viability.\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>The Haryana government conserved water (e.g., 31,500 crore litres saved in 2022) by adopting DSR on a large scale.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1: What is Bt-Cotton?<\/h3>\n<p>Bt-Cotton is a genetically modified (GM) cotton crop that expresses an insecticidal protein derived from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). This protein is toxic to certain insect pests, particularly bollworms and tobacco budworms, which are major cotton pests.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/blog\/agriculture\/icar-s-herbicide-tolerant-rice-is-not-farmer-friendly-and-is-a-threat-to-national-food-security-96490\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ICAR\u2019s herbicide-tolerant rice is not farmer-friendly and is a threat to national food security<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Direct Seeded Rice is a modern rice cultivation technique where rice seeds are directly sown into the field, replacing the traditional method of transplanting seedlings from a nursery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}