Crop establishment and diversification strategies for intensification of rice-based cropping systems in rice-fallow areas in Odisha.

Context Or Problem: In the Indian state of Odisha, rice-based system productivity is poor due to: (i) low rice yield in the monsoon (wet) season (2-4 t ha compared to 6-8 t ha in Punjab or Haryana); and (ii) limited cropping during the post-monsoon (dry) season (59% of the wet season rice area is left fallow in the dry season).

Objective: Our study identifies strategies for increasing rice-based system productivity through: (i) alternative crop establishment methods in the wet season (Dry-Direct Seeded Rice or DSR, and mechanical puddled transplanted rice or PTR-M) to traditional methods such as broadcasting followed by post-emergence tillage (locally known as ) and manual random puddled transplanted rice (PTR-R); (ii) to identify rice-fallow areas suitable for pulse and oilseed cultivation in the dry season; and (iii) to evaluate the performance of short-duration pulses (green gram, ; black gram, ), and oilseeds ( var. toria, ) in rice-fallow areas in the dry season.