Impact of direct dry seeding on rainfed paddy vegetation in north-east Thailand

In north-east Thailand where rainfed paddy cultivation is commonplace, direct dry seeding is replacing transplanting to increase the frequency of successful plantings and to save labor. The present study shows the impact of this change on paddy vegetation from agricultural and ecological viewpoints. One hundred and seventy-nine paddy fields from a wide range of climatic, topography, soil and hydrological conditions were used in this study. Authors visited these fields every 3 weeks during the rainy seasons of 1996–1998 to collect data about water conditions, rice growth, progress of cultivation, paddy vegetation and roughness (unevenness) of the soil surface. Analysis of this data revealed that direct dry seeded fields are resource-poor and have a wider range of water conditions within a field than transplanted fields due to a rougher soil surface. This results in lower productivity of total vegetation for rice growing in direct dry seeded fields. However, weed productivity was not significantly different between the direct dry seeding and transplanted fields. Direct dry seeded fields have more species-rich vegetation and greater diversity than the transplanted fields. Previous planting methods for particular fields did not influence productivity and diversity of paddy vegetation. It is concluded that the use of direct dry seeding increases biomass production of rice and the diversity of the paddy vegetation. The present results also suggest that an analytical framework be used to integrate agricultural and ecological studies of paddy vegetation in order to harmonize agricultural productivity with biological diversity.