Economic suitability of direct seeded rice across different geographies in India

Puddled transplanted rice (PTR) is being replaced by dry direct-seeded rice (dDSR) to address manpower, water, and agricultural costs. The economic suitability of dDSR in different agro-climatic regions limits its widespread adoption. We use plot and household data to estimate the impact of dDSR adoption in four Indian rice-growing states. We first used propensity score matching (PSM) to assess how dDSR adoption affected operation-wise cultivation costs, paddy yield, and net income. The yield effect on DSR adoption was estimated using endogenous switch regression (ESR) to account for observed and unobserved heterogeneity. Both PSM and ESR-based results show that DSR adoption may increase paddy yield in Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana and decrease it in Madhya Pradesh, but net income from paddy farming increased significantly (Rs5009/acre to 8134 based on different locations) in all four states. Adopting dDSR helps resource-poor Indian farmers reduce paddy production costs and increase income. Therefore, Central and State governments must implement policies and strategies to encourage non-adopters to adopt dDSR.