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International Conference on

Recent Trends in Environmental Sustainability

ESCON22/CDMP/14
Climate-smart practices for improving sustainability of rice systems: potential and
prerequisites

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Masood Iqbal Awan , Athar Mahmood , Hafeez-ur-Rehman , Tariq Aziz
1 Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF) 38040, Pakistan,
Correspondence: masood.awan@uaf.edu.pk
Abstract

Pakistan, already among top five rice exporters, achieved record rice production of 8.9 million
tonnes in the marketing year 2021-22. An important question, however, is that how much
sustainable the increased production in terms of farmer profitability is, resource use, and
environmental footprint. The sustainability of conventional paddy rice systems is already being
questioned due to low input conversion efficiencies, rising costs of production, and methane
emissions in puddled fields. It is envisaged that rice landscapes in Pakistan will be drier as well
as more mechanized due to the constraints of water, labour, and energy. To produce rice
sustainably, the introduction and adoption of sustainable cultivation practices and technologies
is critical for adaptation and mitigation against the challenges of unsustainability, declining
resources, and changing climate. Aiming at sustainability, climate-smart agricultural practices
include dry direct seeding of rice, mechanical rice transplanting, hybrid seeds, double rice
cropping, laser land levelling, new chemistry herbicides, and improved machinery such as
inclined plate seed drills and combine harvesters. The sustainability aspects of the mentioned
practices/technologies are: i) improved management of labour, land, water, and energy
resources, ii) time saving, iii) high and sustainable yields, iv) reduced harvest losses, v) ease of
operation, vi) reduced maintenance costs for machinery, and vii) increased farmer profitability.
For widespread adoption of the climate-smart practices we need to work with farmers for
raising awareness and understand the socio-economic drivers of change. Major barriers to the
adoption of different technologies or practices are: lack of awareness about the technology,
emerging challenges such as changes in weed flora, insects, and diseases, small landholdings,
unavailability of suitable germplasm, low yields, and changed nutrient dynamics. Therefore,
we propose that a trans-disciplinary approach is required to address emerging issues that
impede adoption in the alternate sustainable production systems. Such an approach can identify
certain prerequisites for a particular technology to be recommended for a particular situation.
To mention a few, some prerequisites are farmer training programs on different aspects such
as precise seeding, integrated weed management, and optimal sowing time, new fertilization
plans, establishing critical thresholds for reirrigation, availability of associated machinery like
water-tight rotavator in case of mechanical transplanting, recommending target domains, and
breeding for less optimal environments. The identified entry points can help balance production
and sustainability by reducing environmental footprint as well as avoid crop failure risks.
Keywords: Mechanical transplanting; direct seeding; Sustainability; Rice hybrids.

Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari Campus

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