Sixty front-line demonstrations (FLDs) on System of Rice Intensification (SRI) method of rice cultivation conducted by KVK, East Sikkim at farmer’s field of different villages in East Sikkim district over the last three kharif seasons starting from 2009-10 to 2011-12 showed an increasing trend in yield performance accounting for 25.44 per cent more yield over Traditional Random Planting (TRP) method. Maximum pooled grain yield of rice was recorded in case of System of Rice Intensification (21.45 q ha-1) as compared to Traditional Random Planting (17.10 q ha-1). In case of SRI, the growth parameters like plant height (145.67 cm), effective tillers/hill (12 nos), panicle length (23 cm), No. of grains/panicle (120.33nos) and test weight (20.67 g) were found to be more as compared to TRP method. Comparative economics of SRI and TRP method of rice cultivation revealed that SRI method realized 61.23 per cent higher net return than TRP method of rice cultivation. The B:C ratio of 1.70 in case of SRI over and above the TRP (1.40) proved the efficacy of SRI in terms of productivity. Results further revealed that the grain yield in both cases was positively and significantly correlated with growth and yield parameters of rice viz., plant height(cm), effective tillers/hill, panicle length (cm), No. of grains/panicle, test weight(g) both under SRI and TRP methods. Hence, the higher positive relationship between the grain yield and growth parameters influenced the increasing pattern of grain yield which leads to larger adoption of SRI method of rice cultivation over TRP.

Keyword: System of Rice Intensification (SRI); Traditional Random Planting (TRP);Growth parameters;