KisanKraft conducts Aerobic Rice demonstration for 150 farmers in Arsikere

Aims to educate farmers on the advantages of growing Aerobic Rice-
Karnataka, November 25, 2017: KisanKraft an ISO 9001:2008 certified manufacturer, wholesale importer & distributor of high quality agricultural equipment conducted an Aerobic Rice demonstration for 150 farmers in Deshani Village. The demonstration was conducted by Dr.H.E.Shashidhar, Director of Research, KisanKraft who was till recently a Professor at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangelore, in order to educate farmers on cultivation of Aerobic Rice.

The advantages of Aerobic rice is that it uses 50% less water than that required for paddy cultivation, and reduces the amount of fertilizer, pesticides, labor costs and greenhouse gas emissions. As against 5,000 litres of water required to produce one kg of conventional rice, the aerobic rice requires between 2,000-2,500 litres. This crop could also be grown in low rainfall areas.

Aerobic rice is dry direct seeded in well aerated fields. The fields need not be puddled. Inter or mixed cropping with pulses, vegetables, and oilseeds is also possible. In the long run, this improves the soil health. A significant advantage of cultivating Aerobic Rice that it does not need nursery, puddling, leveling and transplanting. It is also very eco-friendly as it produces less methane emission while being a cost effective crop as it gives lesser incidence of pests and diseases.

Speaking at the demonstration, Dr H E Shashidhar said, “The cultivation and production of rice is one of the utmost important part of India’s economy. But issues such as drought and lack of awareness threaten to hurt the gains that are made through rice crop improvement. It is for this reason that we have developed a new strain of Aerobic rice which uses more than 50% less water while giving the same outputs.”

“Using Aerobic Rice, farmers can yield 55 quintals of paddy per ha or more depending on the fertility of the soil. This paddy can be sown directly and tastes the same as conventionally grown rice varieties. Profitability of paddy cultivation increases as cultivation expenses are significantly lesser", he added.