According to Statista, it is estimated that around 510 million metric tons of rice were consumed during the year 2021/22. The love for rice crops worldwide shows how it’s a great financial opportunity to become a rice farmer.
But you have to overcome certain challenges before you can make rice production financially profitable.
As a rice farmer, if you know what is yield for rice, you should also learn the strategies that help them get the maximum benefit from your rice farming efforts.
Sticking to conventional rice farming techniques can lower the productivity of your farming land. In this blog, we will share ten proven ways you can improve the yield of your rice crop – keep reading!
1.    Choose better seeds
The choice of seeds plays an essential role in improving the yield of a crop. If a farmer picks seeds that are not suitable for a given land, they won’t be able to achieve maximum crop growth.
Seeds that have not been previously tested in a controlled lab environment might not provide the desired crop yield. Therefore, government authorities now recommend farmers pick better seeds that pass quality control tests.
In general, it’s observed that certified seeds have higher costs compared to uncertified seeds as quality control techniques increase the prices. But choosing certified seeds improves crop yield and provides better profits that compensate for the increased costs of choosing seeds.
Choosing the best seeds available doesn’t automatically mean the improved yield of crops. You should adopt seed treatment techniques to ensure that seeds aren’t damaged on the field and the crop grows as predicted.
2.    Focus on “Productivity zoning”
The choice of land also directly impacts the yield of a crop. Even if you choose the best seeds, you won’t be able to get improved yield if the land isn’t suitable. The “productivity zoning” technique can help you choose the right land for your rice crop.
The “productivity zoning” technique allows farmers to figure out the areas in a field where plants can grow better. Farmers can decide to sow more seeds in that specific fertile area to increase their crop yield.
This technique allows farmers to identify the areas in a field that need more attention. Farmers can try techniques to treat the soil properly and fix other problems to improve plant growth in low fertility zones.
3.    Monitor the crop growth
Farmers must monitor the crop from the germination of the seeds until it’s time to harvest the crop. Through proper monitoring, farmers can pinpoint if there are problems like pest attacks, and with proven techniques, they can overcome the challenges to increase crop yield.
There are several ways farmers can monitor the rice crop growth rate. For example, farmers can send teams of experts to check the growth of plants manually. But it’s comparatively better to rely on advanced technologies like satellite monitoring of farmlands.
Remote sensing with satellite monitoring makes it easier to check the growth status of plants. Satellites can provide spectral indices, and farmers can use software products to run valuable results from the gathered data.
4.    Predict the weather conditions
Weather conditions have a direct impact on the growth of rice plants. Without proper weather prediction, farmers cannot identify how they can save their crops from the environment’s harsh effects. For example, cold stress and heat stress can disturb the growth of plants.
It’s important to choose the right techniques for weather prediction. Traditional weather conditions cannot help farmers forecast how the weather will change over the months. However, you can now predict how weather conditions will develop with advanced weather prediction techniques.
5.    Scout your fields regularly
Scouting allows farmers to identify what problems their rice crops might have. There are several traditional techniques that farmers rely on to scout their fields. For example, a skilled team of crop experts visits the field to check if there are pests or irrigation problems that can slow down the crop yield.
The problem with traditional scouting is that it’s laborious. It can take a lot of time and effort to check every acre of the farmland, and there’s also a chance of not scouting some part of the field.
Improved scouting techniques like using satellites and software solutions can help you speed up the scouting of your rice fields.
6.    Irrigate the fields
Proper irrigation is the essential element for improving the yield of rice crops. Farmers can never speed up the growth of their crops if they don’t have proven strategies that limit the waste of water and keep plants irrigated.
For thousands of years, rice farmers worldwide have developed irrigation strategies that match the needs of specific fertile lands.
Irrigating your crops with excessive water cannot guarantee the improved yield of your crop. To ensure that irrigation is done properly, farmers must harmonize irrigation with weather conditions to achieve their crop yield goals.
You can rely on satellite monitoring and software products to choose the right time for irrigation.
7.    Apply fertilizers properly
Rice plants need plenty of nutrients so they can grow properly. Lack of nutrients from any problem in the field can slow down the growth of plants and decrease the yield of the field.
Improper application of fertilizers can also shun the crop yield. It’s important to take care of factors like the soil type and the specific needs of farmland for choosing proper fertilizers.
Farmers and scientists have identified that improper application of fertilizers can negatively impact the crop’s growth. One of the approaches you can use is to apply fertilizers specifically to the fields, so fertilizers do not harm plants.
8.    Protect your crops
Keeping your crop safe from unexpected circumstances is essential to improving the yield of your crop. To ensure that your plants are not damaged in the fields, it’s important for you to identify the challenges that might arise and how to handle them properly.
It may get hard for farmers to identify how to save their crops from damage. You can get help from rice crop experts to learn how you can safeguard your rice crop from unwanted problems.
9.    Get rid of pests and weeds
Unwanted pests and weeds are the biggest challenges that lower rice crop yield. Without proper prevention techniques, pests and weeds can multiply and steal water and nutrients necessary for increased crop yield.
Pests are also hard to control once they grow in numbers and find safe places to hide in the field. Regular scouting and adoption of prevention strategies can help you fight pests and weeds at the right time.
10. Check the soil
Soil plays an essential role in the growth of a rice crop. Applying proper fertilizers and using the right seeds won’t improve the yield if the soil is not ready to provide maximum yields. Testing the soil quality is the only way to ensure if the crop will grow to its maximum potential or not.
Several factors dictate the quality of soil; some of the main factors are:
- The pH of the soil
- Presence of nutrients
- Presence of organic matter
It is necessary to identify if the soil has any problems, so you can use proven strategies to improve soil quality over time.
