How to grow rice

Rice farming is considered as one of the strategic agricultural enterprises with the potential to contribute to increasing rural incomes and livelihoods and improving food and nutrition security.

However, current rice yields in the country are still low, a situation partly attributed to the fact that farmers hardly use best agronomy practice or effects of climate change to realise good harvest.

Agricultural experts at the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) based in Nairobi, Kenya attribute poor yields to poor farm management practices and effects of climate change.

One of the reasons is because most farmers are still relying on rain fed farming system, use of saved seed for subsequent production, lack of machinery to support quality processing for commercialisation and low use of fertilisers.

The study further shows that with climate change, there are many rice farms that are being abandoned in the respective countries due to high salinity levels in the soils as well as pest and disease burden.
The experts realised that abiotic constraints associated with soil nutrient depletion and water availability contribute significantly to low rice productivity in the three countries.

The survey shows that only 9 per cent and 10 per cent of sampled rice producing communities in Nigeria and Uganda respectively practiced exclusive irrigated rice farming.

Farmer experience
Ambassador Phillip Idro is a rice grower and processor. His rice processing plant Upland Rice Millers located in Jinja has milling capacity of 100 metric tonnes per day but he is unable to meet this target because there is limited rice production in the country.

To him this is because farmers are taking their time to learn new methods of growing the crop.
“Most farmers in Uganda are satisfied when they produce one acre rice worth Shs1m and yet if more effort is put in place to adopt high yielding varieties and application of best agronomy practice, the yield can increase and a farmer will be able to earn Shs10m from an acre,” says Idro.

What farmers can do to increase yields
Speaking to Simon Alibu, a scientist majoring in rice breeding at the National Crop Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI); this is what he advises farmers to do as they go about with daily routine work of growing rice.

Land preparation
Alibu explained that before rice can be planted, the soil should be in the best physical condition for crop growth.
Farmers are expected to till land in time, about one month before the rains start. Ploughing and harrowing is done twice before planting seeds.

Traditional method of tilling using hoe and ox plough or modern method of using tractors particularly for large scale farmers owning huge acres of land is recommendable.
Alibu narrates that farmers growing upland rice are expected to plant rice seed in rows with spacing of 1ft by 1ft.

Planting method
There are three methods of direct seed planting. They include broadcast method where farmers sow seed using hand, metallic drilling where a line is drilled using metallic fork measuring 30cm by 15cm. Seed is dropped into the drilled lines and covered and a farmer uses one kilogramme of seed in a 200 square mile land.

The third method is the dibbling or spot planting mainly practiced along mountain slopes where ploughing is difficult.
Farmers use a metallic hook to make a hole comprising 30cm by 12.5 cm and in each hole seven seeds are dropped and covered with soil.

Weeding
It takes a week for the seeds to germinate. After three weeks from germination farmers are advised to weed their farms. This is the time to apply the first round of fertiliser namely UREA and Diammonium phosphate (DAP) measuring 50 kilogrammes per hectare.
It is better to apply the fertilisers before weeding to allow the weeding process cause it to infiltrate to the soil.

The second weeding is done after 50 – 60 days from planting. Rice takes about 70 days to flower depending on the variety and farmers are expected to start harvesting 40 to 50 days from the date of flowering.

Varieties
Most farmers in the country are growing Nerica rice varieties namely Nerica 1, 4 and 10 which is considered as old generation of rice.
Nerica 4 matures between 110 – 120 days with yield capacity of 4-5 tonnes per hectare and it is tolerant to drought.

Nerica 2 and 5 are high yielding and it is mostly adopted and grown by farmers in northern Uganda.
The seed does not break easily meaning there is less loss during processing. A farmer milling 100 kilogrammes of paddy seed is able to get 70 kilogrammes of processed rice.

Nerica 1 matures between 105-115 days and the yield is between three to four tonnes per hectare while Nerica 10 matures in a short period of 100 -105 days with yield rate of three to four tonnes per hectare.
Nerica 6 is tolerant against Yellow Mortal Virus (YMV) and it matures in 130 – 140 days with yield potential of three to five tonnes per hectare.

Wita 9 variety is high yielding and farmers can harvest five to six tonnes per hectare with maturity period of 140 - 160 days. It is resistant to YMV
Alibu and his breeding team at Namulonge in 2013 released upland varieties namely Namche1, 2, 3, and 4.
Namche 1 is widely adopted because it is early maturing taking 100 days to harvesting.

Low land rice growing
Farmers engaged in growing lowland rice are expected to prepare nursery beds for raising seedlings.
A farmer is expected to heap soil of about one metre wide and sow seed in holes, cover the beds with grass and keep watering for germination to take place.
Farmers must have a good source of water and drainage which will channel water into the field. Seedlings are transplanted after raising them for three weeks.

At the nursery preparation, organic manure and fertiliser should be added. The bed should be prepared in 30cm by 60cm trays. Construction of water drainage channels is essential.
The farm for low land rice must be flat to enable even flow of water. The fertiliser is applied on the same day of transplanting.

Usually weeds are not a problem in low land rice growing because the water tends to kill the weeds.
Farmers are therefore expected to weed once and that is 50 days from planting. Second fertiliser application should be done after 80 days from date of planting.
Lowland rice takes about 140 to 150 days to mature and farmers grow it in one season.

The recommended varieties released by scientists from NaCRRI include Wita9, Komboka, Agoro and Okile. Other traditional varieties are K85 and K98 commonly known as Kaiso and Super rice.