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DSR Conclave 2025
October 5-7, 2025 | IRRI South Asia Regional Center (ISARC), Varanasi, India
DSR Conclave 2025
October 5-7, 2025 | IRRI South Asia Regional Center (ISARC), Varanasi, India
Rice is the lifeline for millions across Asia, but its cultivation under traditional puddled transplanted systems is becoming increasingly unsustainable. With growing concerns over water scarcity, labor shortages, rising costs, and climate change, Direct-Seeded Rice (DSR) has emerged as a transformative alternative. This technique not only reduces the demand for water and labor but also minimizes greenhouse gas emissions, lowers cultivation costs, and enhances farm profitability, making it a cornerstone for the future of sustainable rice-based systems.
Recognizing these opportunities and challenges, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) launched the Direct-Seeded Rice Consortium (DSRC) as a global public–private partnership to accelerate innovation and adoption. Since its inception, DSRC has worked with governments, private partners, NGOs, and farmers to develop solutions that make DSR both viable and scalable. Across Phases I & II (2018–2023), DSRC advanced mechanized agronomic and weed management practices, optimized water and nutrient inputs, mapped suitable areas, and strengthened stakeholders' capacities. Phase III (2025–2027) now targets large-scale adoption through innovation, partnerships, and sustainable business models.
DSR Conclave 2025 represents a pivotal gathering to advance this agenda. By bringing together scientists, policymakers, private sector leaders, NGOs, and farmer representatives, the conclave will serve as a platform to share knowledge, shape enabling policies, explore business opportunities, and chart a collaborative roadmap for making DSR a global success story.
DSRC Phase III (2025-2027)
Driving the Adoption of Mechanized Direct Seeded Rice
DSRC Phase III (2025-2027)
Driving the Adoption of Mechanized Direct Seeded Rice
Mechanized and precision direct-seeded rice (DSR) presents clear advantages over puddled transplanted rice, including significant savings in labor and water, reductions in cultivation costs and greenhouse gas emissions, and improved net farmer income. Despite these benefits, adoption of mechanized DSR remains limited due to persistent challenges such as poor and uneven crop establishment, complex weed management, lack of varieties specifically bred for DSR conditions, underdeveloped markets for essential products (e.g., quality seed drills and weed control solutions), and limited technical capacity among scaling agents.
During Phases I (2018–2020) and II (2021–2023), DSRC focused on building the scientific and technical foundations for direct-seeded rice (DSR) by closing key research and knowledge gaps. These efforts generated robust evidence on the yield and economic performance of DSR compared to prevailing farmer practices, developed risk-reducing agronomic and weed management practices, optimized precision water and nutrient management, identified adoption constraints, mapped areas suitable for scaling, and supported market development through public–private partnerships
Building on these achievements, Phase III (2025–2027) will transition from research and piloting toward catalyzing large-scale adoption of mechanized DSR. This phase emphasizes:
Strengthening public–private partnerships to accelerate scaling in priority geographies
Supporting governments, private companies, and development partners in integrating mechanized DSR into sustainability and climate strategies
Generating robust evidence on the climate mitigation potential of DSR, particularly in the context of rice carbon markets and net-zero emission targets
Facilitating the development and dissemination of technologies, products, and capacity-building initiatives that enable sustainable and profitable adoption of mechanized DSR at scale
Phase III represents a significant step toward elevating mechanized DSR as a climate-smart, resource-efficient, and farmer-friendly cropping system. Through coordinated and collective research and development, DSRC aims to make mechanized DSR a practical and profitable choice for farmers across Asia and beyond.
Phase III objectives
Synthesizing the findings of Phase I and II to provide business intelligence and insights to DSRC members.
Publishing a peer review paper on the current status of DSR, including clear definitions of dry and wet direct seeding, spatial mapping of DSR systems (wet, dry, broadcast, mechanized), and developing future scenarios for DSR adoption and its impact on productivity, profitability, resource use, and climate change adaptation and mitigation potential.
Developing DSR suitability maps in selected geographies, with particular emphasis on India, to guide scaling partners in precision targeting (through co-investment from IRRI’s other projects)
Generating evidence on the mitigation potential of mechanized and precision DSR compared to PTR and current farmer’s practice of broadcast DSR, taking account of various water management scenarios (flooding, AWD, aerobic conditions). This evidence can be used to incorporate types of mechanized DSR into accredited methodologies (e.g. by VERRA, Gold Standard) for the accreditation of carbon credits.
Optimizing drone-based direct seeding and standard operating procedures for drone-based herbicide application (through Co-investment of IRRI’s other bilateral projects)
Providing training and capacity building to different actors across the DSR value chain, including service providers, and extension personnel from both private and public sectors.
Facilitating knowledge sharing among partners and a wider audience in Asia through annual meetings.
Engaging in policy consultations to advocate for enabling policies that support DSR adoption (through co-investment of IRRI’s other projects
Exploring funding opportunities to scale up DSR with DSRC members.
Provide technical backstopping/advice to DSRC members as needed in their DSR programs.
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