SAGUNA RICE TECHNIQUE

Jaoli, India
Shekhar Bhadsavale, Emmanuel D'Silva

India is the world's largest rice producer, despite only half of the nation's rice crop being irrigated due to a lack of water and reliance on the monsoon cycle to water crops across the country. As the monsoon cycle becomes less consistent due to climate change, new forms of staple crop production are critical to ensure food security. The Saguna Rice Technique is a method of rice cultivation that uses raised beds to cultivate crops without ploughing or transplanting the rice, using principles of zero-till conservation agriculture. The technique was developed by Chanrdashekhar H Bhadsavle, who maintains a research institute at Saguna Baug in Maharashtra. The technique leaves the rice root and stem within the raised bed, which then decomposes in the soil without removing the nutrients from the beds. There is an emphasis on using manual labor or pesticides to remove weeds from the raised beds without submerging the rice in water, which is the method normally used, as rice plants are poor competitors, but are able to survive being submerged in water. The crop is generally ready to be harvested a week to two weeks before other methods of rice cultivation, which shifts cycles of planting and harvesting. The technique allows for multiple crops of rice and other crops to be grown after building the raised beds once, which reduces labor and maintenance needs by up to 50%. Additionally, the method reduces the loss of silt that accompanies conventional rice transplanting .

2015 - ongoing
50 acres
3000 feet above sea level

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