Meshing mechanization with SRI methods for rice cultivation in Nepal

Currently rice is cultivated on 1.5 million ha in Nepal, producing about 4.5 million metric tons of rice (MOAC 2009). Nepalese rice productivity about 3 tons ha is very low compared with leading rice-producing countries and lower than in most South Asian countries (IRRI 2006). While rice cultivation is very important for Nepal’s farmers and its economy, high production costs together with continuing low productivity have made rice farming less profitable and less attractive in recent decades. Despite rapid population growth and considerable unemployment, in many rural areas labor shortages present an additional constraint for expanding agricultural production. To address some of the problems confronting rice farmers, the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) has been introduced to raise factor productivity and reduce water requirements. But even though SRI raises labor productivity, its labor requirements often limit its adoption. In this situation, labor-saving mechanization is being introduced in conjunction with SRI practices. Farmers who have introduced mechanization into their rice farming have found that they can reduce production costs by 27% and increase their profits ha by 36%. Those who have employed mechanization together with SRI methods have achieved 55% higher production ha and earned 58% more profit. Mechanization with SRI methods, doubling plant-to-plant spacing and reducing seedling age by half, cuts farmers’ seed requirements by 50%. Labor requirements are reduced by 60%, and the time required for all of the main rice-farming activities by 70%. Thus rice farmers in Nepal’s terai could find mechanization to be a solution for labor shortages. 1. Introducing Mechanization More than in most countries, Nepalese agriculture still depends on manual labor and animal power. Farmers presently use few machines (4-wheeled tractors, power tillers, threshers), especially for their land preparation and threshing. As a solution to labor shortages and to reduce the production costs of rice farming, Buddha Air, a private airline, has introduced mechanized rice production with a pilot project in Morang district, under the company’s ‘corporate social responsibility’ scheme. In the 2009 main season, 27 rice farmers associated with the local agriculture cooperative of Hattimuda Village Development Committee (VDC) undertook to test the suitability of machines on 24 hectares of land. The main machines made available to farmers were tractor-drawn land levelers, rotavators (rotary tillers), rice transplanter, and tractor-mounted combine harvesters. Farmers paid rent when using the machines in their farming operations. The charges per hour for tractor-drawn harrow, cultivator, and rotavator were, respectively US$9, 9, and 10. Rents for the transplanter and combine harvester were US$ 28 and 60 per hectare. The rent of machines as fixed includes the cost of machines, operational costs, repair-maintenance, and depreciation. This report is based on information collected from monitoring the activities and expenses of all 27 pilot farmers involved in the mechanized rice-farming program. To compare conventional vs. mechanized rice farming, some secondary data were also considered. In addition, farmers’ recalled memory of their previous year’s activities was elicited for some comparisons. Detailed information was collected on land preparation, transplanting, and harvesting for the mechanized rice farming to compare this with conventional practices (manual and animal-power-based practices). This study did not compare System of Rice Intensification (SRI) methods with conventional practice as such, but rather considered the effect that mechanization combined with a number of SRI practices could have on productivity and profitability of rice production under local conditions. SRI methods were introduced in this area in 2005 and have become widely used. The evaluation here focuses on costs of cultivation, yield and profitability of rice farming, with and without machines. 3. Results and Discussion 3.1. Land sizes of mechanizing farmers Different-sized landholdings were involved in the mechanization evaluation. The acreage of rice land cultivated by farmers under mechanization varied from 0.13 hectare to 3.67 hectares (average 0.73 ha). This variation tested the suitability of mechanization for different kinds of farmers. Details of the