~ 2301 ~ International Journal of Chemical Studies 2020; 8(2): 2301-2305 P-ISSN: 2349–8528 E-ISSN: 2321–4902 www.chemijournal.com IJCS 2020; 8(2): 2301-2305 © 2020 IJCS Received: 04-01-2020 Accepted: 06-02-2020 S Anbumani Agricultural College and Research Institute, Vazhavachanur, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Tamil Nadu, India S Selvakumar Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India K Thirukumaran Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Thirupathisaram, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Tamil Nadu, India Corresponding Author: S Anbumani Agricultural College and Research Institute, Vazhavachanur, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Tamil Nadu, India Mechanized transplanting in system of rice intensification and its evaluation S Anbumani, S Selvakumar and K Thirukumaran DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/chemi.2020.v8.i2ai.9091 Abstract World Bank funded Irrigated Agriculture Modernization and Water Bodies Restoration and Management project was implemented in river basins to produce more with less input in Tamil Nadu. SRI was introduced in mission mode approach over larger areas with the objective of maximizing the productivity of crop and water. One of the main constraints was labourers’ availability and acceptance for square planting of young seedlings. The on farm trial was conducted with 3 treatments viz., Conventional transplanting @ 20 x10 cm spacing, SRI (all components), Machine planted SRI (except planting all SRI components). Results showed that SRI with full components performed superior owing more no. of productive tillers of 22.1 /hill, 148 grains/panicle and 21.4 cm panicle length over machine planted SRI and Conventional transplanted rice (8.3 productive tillers/hill, 105 grains/panicle and 18.8 cm panicle length). Higher net income of Rs. 64,630/ha were obtained in SRI, whilst the benefit cost ratio were higher in Machine planted SRI of Rs.2.68 than SRI of Rs.2.64. SRI resulted higher water productivity of 8.38 kg/ha mm followed by machine planted SRI of 8.2 kg/ ha mm when compared to CTR owes low water productivity of 4.85 kg/ha mm. Machine planting has reduced the labour requirement for the crop establishment which in turn increased the labour productivity of 7.93 kg/man days when compared to CTR of 4.4 kg/man days. Labour saving was very much upfront with the machine. Hence, with lesser water and labour more rice can be produced in unit area by using the modified SRI transplanter. Keywords: SRI, rice transplanter, root volume, alternate wetting and drying irrigation, water productivity Introduction Rice is a traditional food grain crop which is being grown from time immemorial in India which is predominantly grown in Tamil Nadu by accounting nearly 65 % of the irrigated area. Of late, water scarcity due to climate change led variations in rainfall distribution and less profitability, the area under rice cultivation is shrinking every year with increasing productivity (Thiyagarajan, 2005) [10] . Surface water is key source of irrigation wherein irrigation tanks supports the rice farmers in their command area of traditional paddy growing zones in southern India. The paucity of water in the surface storage structures like tanks and reservoirs threatens the sustainability of lowland rice ecosystem. There is greater competition for sharing of the existing water resources from industrial and domestic sector which necessitate for economizing the water usage in agriculture sector. Decline in availability of water for rice farming has become a global concern and need water saving techniques with renewed attention (Bouman and Tuong, 2001) [1] . System of Rice Intensification is a resource efficient production system being adopted very well in Asian countries for the past one decade with promising results on rice productivity (Uphoff, 2013) [11] . Tamil Nadu Agricultural University has taken SRI as one of the water saving technology in IAMWARM project funded by World Bank with the objective of enhancing the productivity of the crop and water tank fed irrigation system. Among the 5 principles in SRI, Square planting of young seedlings deters the adoption level due appalling paucity of skilled labours for planting as observed during the project implementation and feedback analysis. Urbanization and diversified employment opportunity are key factor for paucity of human energy for manual planting which leads to rice farming as lacklustre in tank fed irrigation system. To address the issue TNAU has taken pro active initiative in collaboration with VST Company under PPP mode to refine the existing the low