water less rice

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Transitions in agriculture for enhancing water
productivity
Prem Bindraban
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Transitions in agriculture for enhancing water
productivity
INDIAN SOCIETY OF AGRICULTURAL RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT proudly announces FIRST ANNUAL
CONVENTION SPECIAL INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM
ON Transitions in agriculture for enhancing
water productivity in collaboration with Tamil
Nadu Agricultural University Plant Research
International, Wageningen Indian Council of
Agricultural Research, New Delhi ? IWMI,
Colombo? 23-25 September 2003 Coimbatore,
India Directorate of Soil and Crop Management
Studies TAMIL NADU AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
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General problem in practice

• Reducing availability of water necessitates
  transition in agricultural practices
• Changes in crop choice
• Changes in farming / integrated systems
• Development of new agronomic practices
• Exploiting non-terrestrial systems
• Conversion of current cultivation practices

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Changes in crop choices
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Changes in farming / integrated systems
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Development of new agronomic practices
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Exploiting non-terrestrial systems

• Minimal improvement of marine crops
• Advanced breeding techniques allow improvement of
  marine species
• Production potential great
• Novel proteins
• Medicinal aspects

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Water-less rice
Converting inundated rice cultivation into dry
rice
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Why research on rice ecosystems?

• heavy water consumer 5000 l/kg rice

• important food crop 50 of the world population
• in Asia 80 of caloric intake is rice
• food security lt--gt water security

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Rice - wet or dry

• land preparation
• weed control
• water buffer
• inflow of nutrients
• nitrogen fixing organisms
• dissolving nutrients
• controlling acidification
• diseases
• fish

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Changing conditions - changing practices

• Labor requirement and direct seeding
• Land pressure and multiple cropping
• Water scarcity and water-less-rice production
• Global climate change and methane emission in
  rice fields

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Participants
Plant Research International Netherlands Devel
opment Economics group Netherlands WL Delft
hydraulics Netherlands Nanjing Agricultural
University China Jiangxi Agricultural
Univiversity China Tamil Nadu Agricultural
University India Central Research Institute
for Food Crops Indonesia University of
Antananarivo Madagascar Cornell Intern.
Institute for Food, Agric. and Dev. USA IRRI,
WARDA CGIAR
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Foreseen developments

• From macro to micro irrigation
• From inundated to dry cultivation of rice
• From dry land cropping to micro irrigation
• High value crops
• Bulk food crops (Sugarcane in India)
• Bulk Fiber crops (Cotton)