scholarly journals Evaluation of Growth, Yield, and Water Productivity of Paddy Rice with Water-Saving Irrigation and Optimization of Nitrogen Fertilization

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1629
Author(s):  
Primitiva Mboyerwa ◽  
Kibebew Kibret ◽  
Peter Mtakwa ◽  
Abebe Aschalew

Rice production in Tanzania, with 67% of its territory considered semi-dry and having average annual rainfall of 300 mm, must be increased to feed an ever-growing population. Water for irrigation and low soil fertility are among the main challenges. One way to decrease water consumption in paddy fields is to change the irrigation regime for rice production, replacing continuous flooding with alternate wetting and drying. In order to assess the impact of different irrigation regimes and nitrogen fertilizer applications on growth, yield, and water productivity of rice, a greenhouse pot experiment with soil from lowland rice ecology was conducted at Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania during the 2019 cropping season. The experiment was split-plot based on randomized complete block design with 12 treatments and 3 replications. Water regimes were the main factors comparing continuous flooding (CF) and alternate wetting and drying (AWD) with nitrogen fertilizer levels as the subfactor, comparing absolute control (no fertilizer) with 0 (P and K fertilizers), 60, 90, 120, and 150 kg Nha−1. Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) significantly improved water productivity by 8.3% over CF (p < 0.05). Water productivity (WP) ranged from 0.6 to 1.5 kg of rice per m3 of water. Average water use ranged from 36 to 82 L per season, and water saving was up to 34.3%. Alternate wetting and drying significantly improved yields (p < 0.05) by 13.3%, and the yield ranged from 21.8 to 118.2 g pot−1. The combination of AWD water management and 60 kg N ha−1 nitrogen fertilization application was found to be the optimal management, however there was no significant difference between 60 and 90 kg N ha−1, in which case 60 kg N ha−1 is recommended because it lowers costs and raises net income. Nitrogen levels significantly affected water productivity, water use, and number of irrigations. Nitrogen levels had significant effect (p < 0.05) on plant height, number of tillers, flag leaf area, chlorophyll content, total tillers, number of productive tillers, panicle weight, panicle length, 1000-grain weight, straw yield, grain yield, and grain harvest index. The results showed that less water can be used to produce more crops under alternative wetting and drying irrigation practices. The results are important for water-scarce areas, providing useful information to policy makers, farmers, agricultural departments, and water management boards in devising future climate-smart adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Author(s):  
Primitiva Andrea Mboyerwa ◽  
Peter W. Mtakwa ◽  
Kibebew Kibret ◽  
Abebe Aschalew ◽  
Norman T. Uphoff

Tanzania with 945 million hectares of land area and annual rainfall of 300 mm on 67% of its territorial land is considered as a semi-dry region in the world. Rice production in Tanzania needs to be increased to feed a growing population, whereas water for irrigation is getting scarce. One way to decrease water consumption in paddy fields is to change the irrigation regime for rice production and to replace continuous flooding with alternate wetting and drying. In order to investigate the effect of different regimes of irrigation and nitrogen fertilizer on yield and water productivity of hybrid rice, two greenhouse pot experiments comprising soils from upland and lowland production ecologies were conducted at Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania during crop seasons of 2019. The experiment was arranged in split plots based on randomized completely block design with 3 replications. Water regimes were the main factor comparing continuous flooding (CF) and alternate wetting and drying (AWD) with nitrogen fertilizer levels as the sub-factor including absolute control , 0, 60, 90, 120 and 150 kg/ha. Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) improved water productivity in both upland and lowland production ecologies compared to CF. AWD increased yield under lowland production by 13.3% while in upland there was 18.5% decrease in yield. The average water use varied from 31.5 to 84 L pot-1 under upland trials, while in lowland trials it was 36 to 82.3 L. Higher yield and lower water application led to an increase in WP varying from 1.2 to 1.8 kg cm-3 under upland trials, and 0.6 to 1.5 kg cm-3 under lowland trials. The variation in water productivity among treatments was mainly due to the differences in the yield, water and nitrogen levels used in the production process. Both sets of trials recorded water saving up to 34.3% and 17.3% under lowland and upland trials, respectively. Under upland trials, the yield varied from 39.9 to 124.1 g pot-1 and in lowland trials yield ranged from 20.6 to 118.2 g pot-1 representing paddy rice. The measurements showed that less water can be used to produce more crops under alternative rice growing practices. The results are important for water-scarce areas, providing useful information to policy makers, farmers, agricultural departments, and water management boards in devising future climate-smart adaptation and mitigation strategies.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1291
Author(s):  
Nasr M. Abdou ◽  
Mohamed A. Abdel-Razek ◽  
Shimaa A. Abd El-Mageed ◽  
Wael M. Semida ◽  
Ahmed A. A. Leilah ◽  
...  

Sustainability of rice production under flooding conditions has been challenged by water shortage and food demand. Applying higher nitrogen fertilization could be a practical solution to alleviate the deleterious effects of water stress on lowland rice (Oryza sativa L.) in semi-arid conditions. For this purpose, field experiments were conducted during the summer of 2017 and 2018 seasons. These trials were conducted as split-split based on randomized complete blocks design with soil moisture regimes at three levels (120, 100 and 80% of crop evapotranspiration (ETc), nitrogen fertilizers at two levels (N1—165 and N2—200 kg N ha−1) and three lowland Egyptian rice varieties [V1 (Giza178), V2 (Giza177) and V3 (Sakha104)] using three replications. For all varieties, growth (plant height, tillers No, effective tillers no), water status ((relative water content RWC, and membrane stability index, MSI), physiological responses (chlorophyll fluorescence, Relative chlorophyll content (SPAD), and yield were significantly increased with higher addition of nitrogen fertilizer under all water regimes. Variety V1 produced the highest grain yield compared to other varieties and the increases were 38% and 15% compared with V2 and V3, respectively. Increasing nitrogen up to 200 kg N ha−1 (N2) resulted in an increase in grain and straw yields by 12.7 and 18.2%, respectively, compared with N1. The highest irrigation water productivity (IWP) was recorded under I2 (0.89 kg m−3) compared to (0.83 kg m−3) and (0.82 kg m−3) for I1 and I3, respectively. Therefore, the new applied agro-management practice (deficit irrigation and higher nitrogen fertilizer) effectively saved irrigation water input by 50–60% when compared with the traditional cultivation method (flooding system). Hence, the new proposed innovative method for rice cultivation could be a promising strategy for enhancing the sustainability of rice production under water shortage conditions.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Porpavai ◽  
D. Yogeswari

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is on important cereal food for more than half of the global population. Rice is a major user of fresh water accounting for approximately 50 percent of the total diverted fresh water in Asia. Due to water scarcity and huge hike in labour wage rates, direct seeded rice offers an attractive alternative for future rice production. Thus there is a need to explore alternate techniques that can sustain rice production and are resource conservative. Direct sowing of rice refers to the process of establishing a rice crop from seeds sown in the field rather than transplanting seedlings from the nursery. Direct seeded rice provides an opportunity for earlier crop establishment to make better use of early season rainfall and to increase cropping area. Effect of AWD on direct seeded rice is presented in this review paper. Direct seeded rice is a resource conservation technology as it uses less water with high efficiency, incurs low labour expenses and is conducive to mechanization. Alternate wetting and drying irrigation increased water use efficiency and water productivity of rice.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunbo Zhang ◽  
Qiyuan Tang ◽  
Shaobing Peng ◽  
Danying Xing ◽  
Jianquan Qin ◽  
...  

One of the technology options that can help farmers cope with water scarcity at the field level is alternate wetting and drying (AWD). Limited information is available on the varietal responses to nitrogen, AWD, and their interactions. Field experiments were conducted at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) farm in 2009 dry season (DS), 2009 wet season (WS), and 2010 DS to determine genotypic responses and water use efficiency of rice under two N rates and two water management treatments. Grain yield was not significantly different between AWD and continuous flooding (CF) across the three seasons. Interactive effects among variety, water management, and N rate were not significant. The high yield was attributed to the significantly higher grain weight, which in turn was due to slower grain filling and high leaf N at the later stage of grain filling of CF. AWD treatments accelerated the grain filling rate, shortened grain filling period, and enhanced whole plant senescence. Under normal dry-season conditions, such as 2010 DS, AWD reduced water input by 24.5% than CF; however, it decreased grain yield by 6.9% due to accelerated leaf senescence. The study indicates that proper water management greatly contributes to grain yield in the late stage of grain filling, and it is critical for safe AWD technology.


Author(s):  
A. Biswas ◽  
D. R. Mailapalli ◽  
N. S. Raghuwanshi

Abstract An experimental study was carried out with medium duration rice variety (IR 36) during kharif and rabi seasons of 2015/16 and 2016/17 to investigate the effect of alternate wetting and drying (AWD) practice on water use efficiency, productivity, and consumptive water footprints of rice. The performance of AWD practice was compared with the conventionally (CON) irrigated rice using non-weighing lysimeters. The study resulted that by managing the alternate wetting and drying up to 15 cm below the ground level, a significant reduction in water input (26–29% in kharif and 22–27% in rabi season) could be achieved under AWD. A reduction in evapotranspiration (about 6% in both kharif and rabi seasons) was also observed under AWD. Reduction in consumptive water footprint (about 2–3% in kharif and 2–5% in rabi) was obtained under AWD. Reductions in blue water footprints (7% in kharif and 4–5% in rabi) was also observed under AWD. On average, crop water use efficiency was significantly enhanced by 27–33% and 20–29% in the respective kharif and rabi seasons under AWD practice. Significant improvement in total water productivity by 29–37% and 23–35% in the respective two seasons exhibited the superiority of AWD over CON during the two years of field experiments.


2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
MM AL Fakhrul Islam ◽  
Md Asaduzzaman Khan ◽  
ASM Fazle Bari ◽  
MT Hosain ◽  
M Sabikunnaher

The experiment was conducted in the Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University research farm, Dhaka, Bangladesh during December 2010 to April 2011 to study the effect of fertilizer and manure with different water management on the growth, yield and nutrient concentration of BRRI dhan28. The experiment consisted of 2 factors i.e. irrigation and fertilizer plus manure. There were 2 irrigation levels (I0= Alternate wetting and drying, I1= Continuous flooding) and 8 fertilizer treatment (T0: control, T1: 100% RDCF, (N100P15K45S20Zn2), T2: 10 ton cowdung/ha, T3: 50% RDCF + 5 ton cowdung/ha, T4: 8 ton poultry manure/ha, T5: 50% RDCF + 4 ton poultry manure/ha, T6: 10 ton vermicompost/ha, T7: 50% RDCF + 5 ton vermicompost/ha). There were 16 treatment combinations and 3 replications. Irrigation had no significant effect on the yield and yield parameters of BRRI dhan 28. The yield contributing characters and yields were significantly influenced by applied fertilizer and manure. The T5 (50% RDCF + 4 ton poultry manure/ha) showed the highest effective tillers/hill, plant height, panicle length, 1000 grain wt., grain yield (5.92 kg/plot) and straw yield (5.91 kg/plot). The higher grain and straw yields were obtained organic manure plus inorganic fertilizers than full dose of chemical fertilizer and manure. The highest grain (5.93 kg/plot) and straw yields (6.42 kg/plot) were recorded from I0T5 (Alternate wetting and drying + 50% RDCF plus 4 ton poultry manure/ha) and the lowest was found in I1T0 (Continuous flooding + control treatment) treatment combination. The highest concentrations of grain and straw N, P, K, S were recorded in T5 treatment. The levels of organic matter and nutrient concentration were increased in the post harvest soils due to added manure plus inorganic fertilizer. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/agric.v11i2.17486 The Agriculturists 2013; 11(2) 44-51


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