AGRONOMIC ASSESSMENT OF BEUSHENING IN RAIN-FED LOWLAND RICE CULTIVATION IN BIHAR, INDIA

This study was undertaken to understand the details of 'beushening' in the rainfed lowlands of Bihar, India. Findings show that beushening i s a combination of the practices of dry seeded and puddled systems of rainfed lowland rice cultivation. Beushening involved direct dry seedi ng and wet plowing and laddering of the field, 25-35 days after germin ation. Farmers practiced beushening only on lands where 15-20 cm of wa ter accumulation was possible and used traditional tall rice cultivars (over 120 days duration), that gave no advantage with transplanting. Semi-dwarf short-duration cultivars were unsuitable for beushening as their grain yield decreased significantly owing to plant breakage duri ng wet plowing and laddering. Rice grain yield with beushening even wi th lower fertilizer rates was comparable with that from transplanted r ice. Beushening helped control weeds, especially Echinochloa colona, w hich is difficult to distinguish from rice, and lessened labor demands in other field operations. Labor demand was also spread over a longer period of time. Beushening is a time-tested traditional agronomic tec hnique for resource management specific to land type, hydrological con dition, and rice cultivar.