Economic factors and developments in rice production technologies are the major drivers that have led to the adoption of direct seeding of rice in place of transplanting in Asia. The primary economic motives for a shift to direct seeding are the savings in labor cost and the possibility of crop intensification. A key development challenge in the drought-prone rainfed agriculture of the Barind Tract of northwest Bangladesh is to simultaneously improve the reliability and yield of monsoon rice while improving total system productivity by increasing the area planted to drought-tolerant postrice crops. Research trials and field-scale evaluation by farmers have demonstrated that dry direct seeding or wet seeding of pregerminated
rice seed reduces labor for crop establishment, results in rice yields similar to or higher than those from conventional transplanting, and advances harvest by
7-10 days. Earlier harvest has the potential to reduce the risk of terminal drought in rice when the monsoon ends abruptly and increases the opportunity for establishing
a postrice crop of chickpea on residual moisture. Herbicide use is essential with direct seeding and this further reduces rice production costs. This modified
rice/legume system using direct seeding is knowledge-intensive. Widespread sustained adoption will depend on farmers undertaking timely tillage, adequate land
leveling, and timely application of herbicides. Extension/farmer training supported by clear decision support frameworks will be needed to provide farmers with access to the knowledge needed to implement direct seeding effectively
