• Happiness and dignity to a smallholder farmer is possible : Small farmers are giving up and their next generation is rapidly losing interest in farming. SRT brought an unparalleled change and made every farmer happy and confident for the first time in their life, soon after their adoption to the SRT. The survey of 160 farmers was conducted by visiting them and asking a set of 20 questions, collecting replies in smiles and was analyzed by statistical tools.
• The technique initially was tested in two districts of Maharashtra, India with 30 rice farmers in 2013. It has gradually grown to 4000 farmers with 25 different crops in 29 districts of Maharashtra having six agroclimatic zones.
• Initially the technique was used only for rice based farming systems under rainfed conditions with rainfall +/- 1 500 mm to 3 000 mm. It is now been accepted by POCRA, Project on Climate Resilient Agriculture, World Bank for drought prone 16 districts of Maharashtra for resolving soil and water issues of the region for crops such as cotton, soybean, pigeon pea, maize, sorghum, pearl millet, green gram, chickpea, etc.
• It is accepted for “The Vision of Antyodaya” documentation of the best practices of sustainable development by ISRN, Indian Social Responsibility Network, Ministry of Culture, Govt of India.

Our preliminary analysis of the soil is showing an increase of 0.5% organic carbon per year when practiced SRT. Average agricultural land of India is having 0.4 to 0.5 % OC which should be 1%. SRT enables quick recovery of the degraded land to 1% and more OC level of the soil.

• Vigorous uniformity : the aerobic condition at the rhizosphere triggers positive chain reaction for healthy root and plant growth and reduced risk and drudgery to the farmer
• Impact on soil structure and water infiltration : With increase in organic carbon, in-situ decomposing of organic matter, capillary formation by drying roots and earthworms, enhanced aerobic condition in the deeper layer of soil, quickly builds a healthy soil. Improved water drainage makes the crop climate smart and climate resilient.
• Presence of earthworms in the paddy field in many types of soils : With the traditional method where plowing and puddling is performed the survival and performance of earthworms was impossible. But with the No Till SRT method all the 5000 farmers in all six agroclimatic zones are dancing with happiness after noticing the natural presence of earthworms.
• Improved soil structure and well drained condition leads to climate smart farming : Increased organic carbon enhanced earthworm activity and higher microflora improve soil aggregation and water drainage which helped all 100 percent SRT farmers during floods in the past two years. The same resilience was also noticed in drought conditions.
• Problem of residue burning on farm lands : Organic residue burning on farms is practiced either to get rid of the bulk of residue and quickly making it convenient for next crop sowing or to sterilize the land for seed sowing. Both problems are taken care of in SRT method by avoiding burning of crop residue.

The root support system (Rhizosphere) gets tremendous advantages in this permanent raised bed system. The most important friends of any plant growth is aerobic microflora. Their essential needs are oxygen and organic carbon. Adjusting to optimum moisture level is also feasible in these raised beds. All these conditions together promote vigorous, hairy and white root growth making crop grow uniformly vigorous. The width of leaf blade is observed to become double or more as compared to transplanted rice. This brings invaluable joy to the farmer himself during crop growth stage. The abundance in production by SRT becomes the reason of confidence to the farmer.

Importance of no till and leaving the plant root (Source of lignin) of previous crop to decay slowly in the bed was guided in SRT through literature by Dr. Amir Kassam (CA-FAO) and Mr. Pratap Chiplunkar (innovative farmer specialized in soil fertility).

In this technique there is no step of transplanting of rice seedling, hence no puddling is involved. This protects the delicate texture and structure of the topsoil. Also puddling invariably promotes washing away of the fine silt; which farmers feel loss of blood of motherly earth. SRT has turned out to be an easy and precise option for this humongous loss.

Puddling requires a large quantity of water either by irrigation or by rain God. This dependence of rice farmers for extra water, machine or bullock for puddling and labor is done away with to the advantage of productivity. In rainfed condition SRT has proved to be successfully mitigating the vagaries of rainfall. Excessive rain in the initial stage of 2013 and severe shortage of rain during 2014 and 2015 has not adversely affected the performance of SRT.

• In this method ploughing and puddling is to be avoided for several years (probably for next 20 years or more). Thus no more transplanting involved.
• Weeds are to be controlled by general purpose and selective weedicides. Roots, left over parts of the previous crop (crop residues) and the weeds are allowed to decay slowly in-situ.
• Rice after rice is to be avoided. The rotation should involve pulses and oilseed crops.
• In this method the transplanting shock is not there. Hence the crop gets ready 8 to 10 days earlier. Thus farmers should be alert in choosing the right variety of rice for his soil type and rainy days for undisturbed harvesting.

• Bed making – The permanent raised beds are used unchanged for next 20 years or more. The dimensions : center to center 136 cm, top width of the bed 100 cm, the furrow channel between beds 36 cm. Height of the bed 20 cm. Direction – along the slope.
• Seed Sowing – Date of sowing for different crops including rice are to be sown as per the local agro-climatic traditions. Until an automatic seed dibbling machine is developed / located, the operation is to be performed manually with the help of SRT Frame. The iron frame is designed to make holes at 25 X 25 cm but can be changed to multiples of 25 cm as per the crop requirement. E.g. Sweet corn to be planted at 25 X 50 cm.
• Pre-emergence selective weedicide application – This is important to prevent weed growth in the first month of plantation. The selective pre-emergence weedicide is to be applied within 24 hours after seed planting on a moist land walking backwards.
• Post emergence selective weedicide application – If for some reason an aggressive weed is noticed after crop emergence these sets of selective weedicides can be sprayed.
• Gap filling & fertilizer application – This is to be performed between 15 to 25 days after emergence of the crop.
• Pest management – Due to SRT the OC of the soil starts rising which helps the crop to keep the insects at a distance. But we strongly recommend use of IPM practices which involve different types of insect pest traps.
• Nutrition booster spray – This spray enhances crop immunity and yield considerably. This can be applied between 50 to 60 days after germination. This consists mainly of the micronutrients and can also have major nutrients in a small quantity.
• Harvesting – As of today harvesting is done either manually or by reaper. But a modified combined harvester can solve problem of stubble burning and can motivate the large farmers.
• Roots for the land - Roots of the previous crop are to be kept undisturbed in-situ. Our philosophy is, “the fruit and the grain is for human being, the leaves & straw for the animals and the roots with stubble for the land”.
• Once the roots of harvested crop start sprouting again after 5 to 7 days it is to be sprayed by systemic general purpose weedicide which stops the competition for next crop and the stubbles are converted into organic carbon, the precious source for next crop.
• Crop Rotation – The easy possibility of relay crops is one of the important advantages of SRT. If irrigation is available three crops can be taken very easily. Crop rotation is a must in SRT.

The overall cost of production to the farmer is reduced by half due to no-tillage, less labour, less input requirements such as seed, fertilizer, water, pesticide, etc. The farmer has become independent of ploughing, optimum rainfall and excess labour.