Rice Production Course

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Rice Production Course

• Water-Saving Irrigation in Rice
• R. Lampayan
• CSWS, IRRI

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Content

• Introduction the water crisis
• Water-saving technologies
• Practical experiences
• Sustainability issues
• Conclusions

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Rice grows under lowland conditions puddled
soil, permanently flooded
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• Rice and water
• 75 of rice is irrigated (75 m ha)
• Rice requires much water 3000-5000 l kg-1 rice
• Irrigated areas consume 80 of all fresh water
  used
• Asia gt 50 of this is for rice

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Pressure to produce more food (rice) is getting
greater because of ever increasing population

• But also
• More people want
• more industry
• more drinking water
• more cities
• more swimming pools
• more.

gt Water is getting scarce and expensive
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Is this the future for rice production.
?
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Competition, some examples in rice areas.
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Reduced river flows
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Tubewells and pumps for irrigation
70
60
50
40
India
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China
20
10
0
1966
1995
India (2000) 5-6 million irrigation tubewells N
China (2001) 3-4 million irrigation tubewells
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Conclusion

• Need to grow rice using less water in
  water-scarce
• or water-costly areas
• Produce enough rice for growing population
• Decrease cost of rice production
• Save little water in rice gt free-up much
  water
• for irrigation elsewhere and for use by other
• sectors (industry, cities, other crops)

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To mitigate the looming water crisis, we need to
Produce more rice with less water
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Field water balance lowland rice
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Water requirements in lowland rice
Total season 675-4450 mm Typical value
1500 mm
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Water-saving measures

• Good puddling
• Good bund maintenance
• Land leveling
• Crack plowing
• Short land preparation phase
• Communal seed beds
• Efficient use of rainfall (cropping calendar)
• Direct wet seeding

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Water-saving irrigation technologies Reduce
seepage, percolation and evaporation

• Saturated soil culture
• Alternate wetting and drying
• Aerobic rice

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Field water depths in alternate wetting
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Continuously flooded
Yield (t/ha)
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Irrigation water (mm)
Note heavy clay soil with shallow groundwater
(0-30 cm deep)
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Guimba 88-90 (Tabbal et al., 2002) Silty clay
loam, groundwater 70-200 cm
Yield (t/ha)
Total water (mm)
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A fundamental approach to reducing water
requirements in rice?
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Upland rice
Unfavorable uplands
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Different idea of rice like upland crop
Breeding from upland rice
Aerobic soil Input responsive Lodging
resistant Weed competitive gt Stable and high
yields
Water-short irrigated areas Favorable uplands
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Improved upland Dryland Rice
Han Dao
Aerobic Rice
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New Aerobic Rice Girls
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• Early evidence Brazil
• Active program to develop upland rice varieties
• and management techniques since the 80s
• gt High-yielding aerobic varieties 5-7 t ha-1
  with
• high inputs
• State of Mato Grosso 250,000 ha commercial
• production (sprinkler irrigated)

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Aerobic rice, Mato Grosso, Brasil Guimarães and
Stone, 2000
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• Early evidence North China
• Program to improve upland rice gt Aerobic rice
• varieties with yield potential of 6-7 t ha-1
• Adoption on estimated 190,000 ha (2001) in
• Rainfed areas where rainfall is insufficient to
• sustain lowland rice production
• Irrigated areas where water is scarce/expensive
• Salt-affected areas
• Flood-prone areas
• Q What is water use, how to manage the crop?

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Hydrology field experiment Beijing, 2001 Explore
aerobic rice yield and irrigation water use
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Total water input (mm)
Water treatment (Rainfall)
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IRRI, Philippines 3-4 varieties each season one
flooded and one aerobic treatment
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IRRI, 2001 DS yield (t ha-1) in K6/7
Fertilizer 180-60-40 kg ha-1 NPK Pests and
diseases mole crickets (aerobic), stem borer,
sheath blight lodging in B6144F
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IRRI, 2002 DS yield (t ha-1) in K6/7
Fertilizer 120-60-40 kg ha-1 NPK
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Water input, including land preparation (mm)
Flooded
Aerobic
Lining of bunds
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Practical experiences
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Case study Tarlac Nueva Ecija Introducing
alternate wetting and drying to farmers using
shallow or deep wells for irrigation
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Monitoring inputs Irrigation water,
seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, labor use,
etc. And outputs Grain yield and quality
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Irrigation water used (mm)
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Grain yield (t/ha)
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Comparison between farmers practice and
alternate wetting and drying (dry season 2001)
Particulars Farmers practice Alternate wetting and drying Difference
Total water used (mm) 500 310 190
Pump OM cost ( ha-1) 112 69 43
Yield (t ha-1) 5.7 5.5 0.2
From transplanting up to harvesting
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Partial budget comparison ( ha-1)
Particulars Farmers practice Alternate wetting and drying Savings
Gross benefits 944 911 -33
Variable irrigation cost 148 96 52
Net benefits 796 815 19
Comments irrigation manager and farmer community
can irrigate 30 more area with same amount of
water !!
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Case study Tarlac and Nueva Ecija,
Philippines Aerobic Rice
Crop establishment (traditional technologies)
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Farmer-participatory development central Luzon.
2003 develop also modern technologies
Laser-guided land leveling
Automated seeder with basal fertilizer application
Labor saving Efficient fertilizer use
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Flush irrigation of the field only!
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Weed control traditional technology (plough,
lithao, sagad)
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Results aerobic rice WS 2002 Canarem, Tarlac
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• Varieties
• Apo
• UPLRI5
• Magat (Hybrid)

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Grain yield (T/ha)
Yield range APO (HT) 2.0 6.6
t/ha (LT) 2.0 6.0
t/ha UPLRI-5 (HT) 3.3 5.3 t/ha
(LT) 2.2 - 5.3 t/ha
Yield range APO 4.1 - 5.9 t/ha UPLRI-5
4.0 - 5.6 t/ha Magat 4.5 - 5.4 t/ha
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Sustainability issues with increased aerobic
conditions
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Aerobic rice, Mato Grosso, Brasil Guimarães and
Stone, 2000
Fertilization 300 kg of 4-30-16 N,P,K at
planting 150 kg ammonia sulfate at 50 DAS
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• Field experiments at Dapdap (dry season)
• Irrigation experiment (4 treatments)
• Nitrogen experiment (5 treatments)
• Mixed upland-lowland area with sandy-loam soil

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No more crop growth after tillering.
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Roots affected by nematodes
Healthy Field experiment
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Irrigation experiment Varieties V1 Apo V2
Magat V3 PSB Rc 98 Irrigation W12/week W21/w
eek W31/2 week W3variable
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Nitrogen experiment Varieties V1 Apo V2
Magat V3 PSB Rc 98 Nitrogen N1 0 kg N2
100 kg N3 140 kg N4 180 kg N5 220 kg
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Nematode count at harvest nitrogen experiment
kg N ha-1
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Nematode count from lowland rice farmers
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Nematode count/g fresh root (Meloidogyne
graminicola)
2000 2001 2001 2002 2002 2003 2003
Wet season Dry season Wet season Dry season Wet season Dry season Wet season
AA 6 875 491 2530 1499 2089
AF 9 279 11 1760 27 3054
FF 2 6 4 134 34 380
Sampled from roots at harvest
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Conclusions for Controlled Irrigation

• An average water savings of about 20 was
  attained in
• both deepwell and shallow tubewell systems.

• Forty percent (40) of water savings has also
  been
• attained in some fields.

• No significant yield difference has been
  observed
• between CI and FP plots.

• Farmers achieved an average increased net
  profit of
• about 20 per ha in deepwell and shallow
  tubewell
• systems.

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Conclusions tropical aerobic rice Where are we
after 2 years in the program?

• 1. Identified varieties with yield potential of 6
  t ha-1, using about half the water used in
  lowland rice (Apo, Magat, UPLRI5, and more)
• Rough management recommendations that can deliver
• about 4.5 t ha-1 of the yield potential
• 3. Established a successful partnership to fully
  develop the aerobic rice technology (IRRI, NIA,
  PhilRice and farmers)
• 4. Under water scarcity extremely urgent to
  develop sustainable crop rotations (nematodes!)
• 5. We stand at a successful beginning

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AWD, aerobic rice Target domain