Rice Production Course: Water-Saving Irrigation in Rice

Rice Production Course
Water-Saving Irrigation in Rice
R. Lampayan
CSWS, IRRI
Content
• Introduction: the water crisis

• Water-saving technologies
• Practical experiences
• Sustainability issues
• Conclusions
IRRI: Rice Production Course

Rice grows under lowland conditions:
puddled soil, permanently flooded

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: > 50% of this is for rice

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….
=> Water is getting scarce and expensive

Is this the future for rice production…….
?

Competition, some examples in rice areas….
Beijing: 2001: ban on flooded rice
ZIS (160,000 ha)-city, industry

ZIS: Irrigation
Other Uses
100
90
80
Sectoral Share
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
YEAR
Ganges river: India-Bangladesh

Cauvery river: Karnataka-Tamil Nadu

Reduced river flows

Tubewells and pumps for irrigation
70
60
50
40
India
30 China
20
10
0
1966 1995
India (2000): 5-6 million irrigation tubewells

N China (2001): 3-4 million irrigation tubewells
Groundwater depletion
1-1.5 m/y
0.7 m/y
Arsenic!

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 => free-up ‘much’ water
for irrigation elsewhere and for use by other
sectors (industry, cities, other crops)

To mitigate the looming water crisis,
we need to
“Produce more rice with less water”

Field water balance lowland rice

Water requirements in lowland rice
Daily Season (100 d)
mm d-1 mm
Land preparation 175-750
Evapotranspiration
- wet season 4-5 400-500
- dry season 6-7 600-700
Seepage & percolation
- heavy clays 1-5 100-500
- loamy/sandy soils 25-30 2500-3000
Total season : 675-4450 mm
Typical value : 1500 mm
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
• ……

Water-saving irrigation technologies:
Reduce
seepage, percolation and evaporation
• Saturated soil culture

• Alternate wetting and drying
• Aerobic rice

60
Field water depths in
50 alternate wetting
Field water depth (mm)
40
30
20
10
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110
transp. PI to complete
Early Late grain filling Maturity
recovery flowering
tillering tillering
Days after Transplanting

Continuously flooded
Alternate wetting and

Yield (t/ha) drying
10
0
TL99 TL00
PR01
Continuously flooded
Alternate wetting and

drying
Irrigation water (mm)
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Tuanlin 1999 Tuanlin 2000 PhilRice 2001
Note: heavy clay soil with shallow groundwater (0-30 cm deep)

Guimba 88-90 (Tabbal et al., 2002)
Silty clay loam, groundwater 70-200 cm
Yield (t/ha)
8
6
1988
4 1989
1990
2
0
500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500
Total water (mm)

A fundamental approach to reducing
water requirements in rice?
Treat rice like any other (irrigated) crop:

No puddling, no standing water, aerobic soil

Upland rice
Aerobic soil
Breeding: Drought tolerant
Weed competitive
Adverse soil conditions
Low inputs (!)
=> Stable but low yields
Unfavorable uplands

Different idea of rice like upland crop
Breeding: from upland rice…
Aerobic soil Lowland HYV traits

Input responsive
Lodging resistant
Weed competitive
=> Stable and high yields
Water-short irrigated areas

‘Favorable’ uplands

Improved upland…
Dryland Rice…
Han Dao…
Aerobic Rice…

New Aerobic Rice
Girls…

Early evidence: Brazil
• Active program to develop upland rice varieties

and management techniques since the 80’s
=> High-yielding aerobic varieties: 5-7 t ha-1 with

high inputs
• State of Mato Grosso: 250,000 ha commercial

production (sprinkler irrigated)

Aerobic rice, Mato Grosso, Brasil
Guimarães and Stone, 2000

Early evidence: North China
• Program to improve upland rice => 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?

Hydrology field experiment Beijing, 2001:
Explore aerobic rice yield and irrigation water use

Total water input (mm)
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
Flood W1 W2 W3 W4 W5
Water treatment (Rainfall)
Yield (t/ha)
9
8
7
6
5 Lowland
4 Aerobic 1
Aerobic 2
3
2
1
0
1394 644 577 586 519 469 Water (mm)
Flooded ---------------- Aerobic ------------------
IRRI, Philippines: 3-4 varieties each season
one flooded and one aerobic treatment

IRRI, 2001 DS: yield (t ha1) in K6/7
8
7
6
5
4 Flooded
3 Aerobic
2
1
0
IR43 B6144F Apo+
Fertilizer: 180-60-40 kg ha1 NPK

Pests and diseases: mole crickets (aerobic), stem
borer, sheath blight; lodging in B6144F
IRRI, 2002 DS: yield (t ha1) in K6/7
8
7
6
5
4 Flooded
3 Aerobic
2
1
0
IR43 IR64 Apo+ Magat
Fertilizer: 120-60-40 kg ha1 NPK
Water input, including land preparation (mm)
2000
Flooded Aerobic
1800
1600 Lining of
1400 bunds
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
DS2002
DS2001
DS2002
DS2001
WS2001
WS2002
WS2001
WS2002
Irrigation Rainfall
Practical experiences

Case study Tarlac & Nueva
Ecija:
Introducing alternate
wetting and drying to
farmers using shallow
or deep wells for irrigation

Monitoring inputs:
Irrigation water, seeds,
fertilizer, pesticides,
labor use, etc.
And outputs:
Grain yield and quality
Irrigation water used (mm)

Grain yield (t/ha)

Comparison between farmers’ practice and alternate wetting
and drying (dry season 2001)
Alternate
Farmers’
Particulars wetting and Difference
practice
drying
Total water used*

(mm) 500 310 190
Pump O&M cost

($ ha1) 112 69 43
Yield (t ha1) 5.7 5.5 0.2
* From transplanting up to harvesting

Partial budget comparison ($ ha-1)
Farmers’ Alternate wetting

Particulars Savings
practice and drying
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 !!

Case study Tarlac and
Nueva Ecija, Philippines:
Aerobic Rice
Crop establishment (traditional
technologies)

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
Flush irrigation
of the field only!

Weed control:
traditional
technology
(plough,
lithao,
sagad)

Results aerobic rice WS 2002; Canarem, Tarlac

Varieties:
• Apo
• UPLRI5
• Magat (Hybrid)

Grain yield (T/ha)
7
L o w -te c h
H ig h - t e c h
Yield range: Yield range:

APO : 4.1 - 5.9 t/ha APO (HT) : 2.0 – 6.6 t/ha
UPLRI-5 : 4.0 - 5.6 t/ha (LT) : 2.0 – 6.0 t/ha
Magat : 4.5 - 5.4
t/ha UPLRI-5 (HT) : 3.3 – 5.3 t/ha
(LT) : 2.2 - 5.3 t/ha
APO U P L R I-5

Sustainability issues with
increased aerobic conditions

Aerobic rice, Mato Grosso, Brasil
Guimarães and Stone, 2000
Rice production system Yield (kg ha-1)

Rice after 3 years soybeans 4,325
Rice after 1 years soybeans 2,577
Rice monocrop (5 years) 1,160
Fertilization 300 kg of 4-30-16 N,P,K at planting;

150 kg ammonia sulfate atProduction
IRRI: Rice 50 Course
DAS
Field experiments at Dapdap (dry season)
• Irrigation experiment (4 treatments)
• Nitrogen experiment (5 treatments)
Mixed upland-lowland area with sandy-loam soil

No more crop growth after tillering….

Roots affected by nematodes
Healthy Field experiment

Rep Treatment Variety Mean
V1 V2 V3 Irrigation
experiment
I W1 1.26 0.76 0.96 0.99
W2 0 0 0 0.00
W3 0 0 0 0.00 Varieties:
W4 0.33 0 0 0.11
V1 = Apo
II W1 4.14 4.69 3.07 3.97 V2 = Magat
W2 0 0 0 0.00
W3 0 0 0 0.00 V3 = PSB Rc 98
W4 0.47 0.68 1.11 0.75
III W1 3.52 4.29 3.93 3.91 Irrigation:

W2 0 0 0 0.00 W1=2/week
W3 0 0 0 0.00
W4 0.52 0.17 0 0.23 W2=1/week
W3=1/2 week
IV W1 3.97 5.68 4.87 4.84
W2 0 0 0 0.00 W3=variable
W3 0 0 0 0.00
W4 0.71 0 0 0.24

Rep Treatment Variety Mean
V1 V2 V3 Nitrogen
! N1 0.46 0 0 0.15 experiment
N2 0.91 0.58 0.75 0.75
N3 0.08 0.21 0.63 0.31
N4
N5
0.24
0.71
0.08
0.35
0.29
0.12
0.20
0.39
Varieties:
V1 = Apo
II N1 0.94 0 0.37 0.44
N2 0.12 0.59 1.18 0.63 V2 = Magat
N3
N4
0.42
0.73
0.54
1.5
1.01
1.96
0.66
1.40
V3 = PSB Rc 98
N5 3.27 2.46 1.54 2.42
III N1 0 0.82 0.68 0.50 Nitrogen:

N2 0.3 0.45 1.6 0.78
N3 1.65 2.25 0.26 1.39 N1 = 0 kg
N4
N5
1.04
1.03
0
1.29
0.53
1.35
0.52
1.22
N2 = 100 kg
N3 = 140 kg
IV N1 0.74 1.41 1.4 1.18
N2 2.6 2.03 0.28 1.64 N4 = 180 kg
N3
N4
2.33
2.6
1.12
1.68
0.54
1.44
1.33
1.91
N5 = 220 kg
N5 0.28 0.54 0.29 0.37

Nematode count at harvest; nitrogen experiment
4500
4000
3500
3000
2500 Apo
2000 Magat
1500 PSB Rc 98
1000
500
0
0 100 140 180
220 kg N ha-1
Nematode count from lowland rice farmers
4500
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43
Nematode count/g fresh root (Meloidogyne graminicola)
2000 2001 2002 2003
Wet Dry Wet Dry Wet Dry Wet

season season season season season season 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

Aerobic
Flooded
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.
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)
2. 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
AWD, aerobic rice
“Target domain” Crack plowing
Compaction
Good
puddling
AWD ……..
Yield Diversification Flooded
(nonrice crops) lowland
Aerobic
rice
Upland
Low High
Water availability

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Rice Production Course

Water-Saving Irrigation in Rice

• Introduction: the water crisis

IRRI: Rice Production Course

IRRI: Rice Production Course

IRRI: Rice Production Course

=> Water is getting scarce and expensive

IRRI: Rice Production Course

ZIS (160,000 ha)-city, industry

Ganges river: India-Bangladesh

IRRI: Rice Production Course

IRRI: Rice Production Course

India (2000): 5-6 million irrigation tubewells

IRRI: Rice Production Course

Need to grow rice using less water in water-scarce

• Produce enough rice for growing population

IRRI: Rice Production Course

“Produce more rice with less water”

IRRI: Rice Production Course

IRRI: Rice Production Course

IRRI: Rice Production Course

• Saturated soil culture

IRRI: Rice Production Course

IRRI: Rice Production Course

Alternate wetting and

Alternate wetting and

Note: heavy clay soil with shallow groundwater (0-30 cm deep)

Total water (mm)

Treat rice like any other (irrigated) crop:

IRRI: Rice Production Course

IRRI: Rice Production Course

Aerobic soil Lowland HYV traits

Water-short irrigated areas

IRRI: Rice Production Course

IRRI: Rice Production Course

IRRI: Rice Production Course

• Active program to develop upland rice varieties

=> High-yielding aerobic varieties: 5-7 t ha-1 with

• State of Mato Grosso: 250,000 ha commercial

IRRI: Rice Production Course

IRRI: Rice Production Course

• Program to improve upland rice => Aerobic rice

Adoption on estimated 190,000 ha (2001) in

Q: What is water use, how to manage the crop?

IRRI: Rice Production Course

IRRI: Rice Production Course

Fertilizer: 180-60-40 kg ha1 NPK

IRRI: Rice Production Course

IRRI: Rice Production Course

IRRI: Rice Production Course

IRRI: Rice Production Course

Total water used*

Pump O&M cost

Yield (t ha1) 5.7 5.5 0.2

* From transplanting up to harvesting

IRRI: Rice Production Course

Farmers’ Alternate wetting