Bayer introduces agricultural system for direct-seeded rice
Bayer plans to bring direct-seeded rice to one million hectares, supporting two million early adopter-smallholder farmers and their families in India by 2030 and expand to the Philippines starting 2024.
Although direct seeding is widely practiced in the United States and South America, productivity challenges have limited its wide-scale adoption in Asia, where 90% of the global rice is produced and consumed. The introduction of the DSR system is fully in line with Bayer’s recently announced approach to regenerative agriculture which will enable farmers to produce more while restoring more.
Moving from transplanted puddled rice cultivation to direct-seeded rice can help farmers to reduce water use by up to 40 percent, greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by up to 45 percent and reduce farmers’ dependence on scarce and costly manual labor by up to 50 percent. International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) sees DSR as a method which delivers faster planting and maturing, conserves scarce resources like water and labor, is more conducive to mechanization, and reduces emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
Advantages
Driven by these advantages, DSR has, according to Bayer, the potential to be transformational with 75 percent of total rice fields in India expected to switch to this cultivation method by 2040, in comparison to roughly 11 percent today. By 2030, Bayer plans to bring the DSR system to one million hectares in India, supporting over two million early-adopter smallholder rice farmers through its DirectAcres program.
Already underway, DirectAcres has seen considerable success with 99 percent of indian farmers achieving successful plant establishment and 75 percent a higher return on investment compared to rice grown using the conventional transplanted method. Bayer plans therefore to introduce DirectAcres in other rice growing countries in Asia Pacific, starting with the Philippines in 2024.
“We are building entire systems based on regenerative agriculture practices that create value for farmers and nature alike and that help address the issue of global food security,” said Frank Terhorst, Head of Strategy & Sustainability at Bayer’s Crop Science division.
