4. RICE IS LIFE Cultivate more land with less water
Introduction
5. • >3 billion people in Asia & 1.5 billion people in Africa and
Latin America
•37% area (154 Mha) is rainfed--scope to increase productivity
6. To meet future food requirements, India need to increase rice
productivity by 3 % per annum
(Thiyagarajan and Selvaraju, 2001)
To produce 1 kg of grain, farmers have to supply 2-3 times more
water in rice fields than other cereals
(Baker et al., 1998)
80% of the freshwater resources are used for irrigation purpose half
of which is used for rice production
(Dawe et al., 1998)
“Despite the constraints of water scarcity, rice production must rise
dramatically over the next generation to meet the food needs “
(Serageldin, 2011)
9. Selection of a good genotype
Method of planting
Weed management
Irrigation method and land
levelling
Seed priming
Silicon nutrition
10. Low land rice
Aerobic rice
System of rice Intensification (SRI)
Alternate wetting and drying (AWD)
Direct seeded rice
Deep water rice
Ground cover rice production system
Raised bed-saturated soil culture method
Drip irrigation
11. Low land rice
High water requirement
3000–5000 liters of water to
produce 1 kg of rice
Environmental degradation
Reduces fertilizer use efficiency
Destruction of soil aggregates
Anaerobic fermentation of soil
organic matter: Methane emission
12. Ways to improve WUE in conventional
system
Crack/rat hole ploughing
Bund lining or reparing breached bunds
Conoweeding
Line sowing
Saturated condition
Proper land leveling and puddling
Transplanting young seedlings
13. Water saving methods
• System of rice Intensification (SRI): 30-40%
• Alternate wetting and drying (AWD): 15-30%
• Aerobic rice: 40-50%
• Direct seeded rice: 75%
• Ground cover rice production system: 50-60%
14. SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION (SRI)
METHOD
• SRI was developed in Madagascar in the early-1980s by Father
Henri de Laulanie
• Formal experimentation started in India 2002-2003
Core principles of SRI
< seed- one seed revolution
< water- Rice is not an aquatic plant
8-12 day old seedlings
Mechanical weeding
Square planting
Organic source of nutrients
“SRI cuts the water required for irrigated rice by 25-50%. The
combination of water reduction together with other SRI practices
can increase paddy yields by 50-100%”
Norman Uphoff
15. • 8-12 days old seedlings
• The fields are alternately kept
wet and dry; they are not
flooded until the panicle
initiation stage
• 1-3 cm of water in the field
during the reproductive phase
• Mechanical weeding 10 DAT
16. 8-10 Days (2 leaf stage) nursery Careful uprooting & transplanting Wider spacing(25X25cm)
Weeding with weeder Saturation of the field Use of Organics
Mahendrakumar et al. (2008)
The basic practices of SRI
18. • Rice seedlings lose much of their growth potential if they
are transplanted more than about 15 days after they
emerge in their nursery
• Wide spacing of plants will lead to greater root
growth and accompanying tillering
In SRI method, young seedlings are placed at
shallow depth and therefore these seedlings
establish quickly. Whereas in the conventional
method 25-30 day old seedlings are pulled from
nursery and pushed deep into the puddled soil and
during the process the tips of roots face upward and
hence these require more time and energy to
establish in the soil
Norman Uphoff, 2005
22. conventional practice v/s SRI methods
Conventional Practices
• 25-30 days seedlings
• Multiple seedlings
• Large plant population
• Paddies kept flooded
throughout the growing cycle
• Weeds are controlled by
flooding, hand weeding and
herbicides
SRI Methods
• 8-12 days old seedlings
• Single seedling
• Sparse plant population
• Soil aeration with AWD
• Weeds are controlled with a
rotary weeder
23. Comparison of dry matter in SRI v/s Conventionally
grown rice at different stages crop cycle
Tao (2004)
24. Grain yield increase with adoption of SRI
across the country
Mahendrakumar et al. (2008)
25. Water productivity as influenced by SRI v/s normal (flooded rice)
Water use decreased by 29% (SRI 79 Cum)
Water productivity increased by 20%
Viraktamath, 2007
Grain yield increase by 10% in SRI
26. Water (irrigation and rainfall) use and water productivity in SRI
and control rice crops
Gujja and Thiyagarajan, 2010
37.5 % 34.2 %
27. Impact of crop establishment techniques on grain yield and
water productivity of rice
Yield attributes
Conventional
Line planting
(20x10cm)
SRI planting
25 x 25 cm
Farmers practice
Random planting
No. of productive
tillers/ sq.m
424 520 408
Panicle weight (g) 3.52 4.05 3.52
test weight (g) 20.1 20.6 19.8
Grain yield
( kg/ha)
6423 7135 5949
Straw yield (kg/ha) 8927 9632 8626
B:C ratio 2.91 3.41 2.71
Total water used
(mm)
1421 1082 1421
WUE (kg/ha mm) 4.52 6.59 4.19
Muthukrishnan and Radhamani, 2011
28. Treatment
No. of
tillers/plant
No. of
productive
tiller/plant
Days to
flowering
Seed yield
(t/ha)
Benefit:
cost ratio
germination
Methods of cultivation (C)
C1–SRI 32.40 29.13 102.70 4.07 1.44 98.1
C2-traditional 15.92 8.14 106.70 3.68 1.14 97.3
Sem+ 0.01 1.34 0.40 0.20 0.05 0.5
C.D. @ 5% 0.06 8.15 2.40 0.06 0.15 NS
Spacings (S)
S1- 20x20 15.88 14.84 101.1 2.82 1.21 97.9
S2-30x30 28.33 32.55 101.6 3.41 1.47 97.6
S3-40x40 24.43 29.51 102.0 3.28 1.41 97.6
S.Em.+ 1.10 0.16 0.1 0.10 0.08 0.2
C.D. @ 5% 3.30 0.48 NS 0.33 0.23 NS
Evaluation of methods of cultivation and spacing on seed
yield and seed quality parameters in BPT-5204
Krishna et al. (2008)
Dharwad
29. Effect of rice establishment methods on growth, grain yield and
water productivity during post rainy season
Methods
Populati
on /sqm
Productive
tillers/hill
Grain
yield
Kg/ha
IW
used
(mm)
Total
Water
Used
(mm)
Water
Productiviy
Kg/ha-m
Line
planting
49.3 12.4 4430 996 1043 4.23
Random
planting
96.3 10.0 3970 1055 1102 3.60
SRI 16.0 17.5 5260 681 728 7.23
Marimuthu et al. (2011)
30. COST OF CULTIVATION (RS/ACRE): CONVENTIONAL
V/S SRI METHOD
Note : Price of paddy - Rs.5,600/t
Price of straw - Rs. 800/t Mahendrakumar et al. (2008)
31. Saving of 30 – 40% irrigation water
Saving of 85 % seed (2 kg / acre as against 25-30
kg/ acre in normal method)
Saving of chemical inputs
More healthy and tasty rice due to organic farming
practices
Better and higher yields with lower inputs
Crop duration reduced by 7-10 days due to
absence of transplanting shock
32. • Aerobic rice varieties
• Well drained
• Non puddled
• 4-6t/ha with 50% saving
irrigation water
• Uplands
• Undulating, rainfed lowlands
• Water-short irrigated low lands
Aerobic rice system
33. Benefits
Increased mycorrhizal association
Increased rhizobial association
Prolonged root activity
Higher water productivity
Long root development
Labour cost
Reduced nitrogen loss
Biofertilizers saves 20-30kg/ha of nitrogen fertilizers
34. Comparison of seasonal water requirement between
low land flooded rice and aerobic rice
Particulars Seasonal water requirement (mm)
Lowland rice Aerobic rice
Land preparation 150-300 100
Evaporation 200 100
Transpiration 400 400
Seepage and
percolation
500 335
Application loss 400 335
Total seasonal water
requirement (mm)
1650 935
Lampayan and Bouman, 2005
35. Water input and yield of aerobic rice varieties
under flooded and aerobic conditions
year Water
management
Water input Yield (t ha-1)
I IR HD502 HD297
2001 Flooded 1057 1351 6.8 5.4
Aerobic 350 644 5.3 4.7
2002 Flooded 900 1255 5.7 5.3
Aerobic 522 917 4.6 5.3
Bouman et al. (2007)
36. Direct seeding
Shortage of labour & their
wage rate
Increasing availability of
chemical weed control
methods
Need to intensify rice
production systems
Direct-seeded rice save about 75 per cent of water along with
about 10 percent loss of yield
Johl, 2009
38. Advantages
Faster and easier planting
Reduced labour and earlier crop maturity by 7–10 days
More efficient water use and higher tolerance of water
deficit and less methane emission
Disadvantages
Damage of surface-sown seeds by birds, rats and snails
Desiccation of seeds exposed to direct sunlight or dry weather
Increased lodging at maturity
Severe competition from rapidly emerging weeds
lower yield stability
Higher pest and disease incidence because of dense canopy
39. • AWD is also called ‘intermittent irrigation’ or ‘controlled irrigation’
• Alternate flooding
• Compared with the traditional continuous flooding system, AWD using
lowland rice cultivars can reduce water input by 15-30% without yield loss
Field water tube from PVC Note
the holes on all sides
A Field tube under
Flooded conditions
Water at 15 cm depth:Time to
irrigate and flood the field again
40. KEY POINTS OF AWD
Transplant young seedlings into puddled soil
Install a PVC pipe with holes
Start AWD at 10 DAT and allow the field to
dry out
Re-flood the field to a standing water layer of 5
cm when the groundwater is 15-20 cm below
the soil surface
Keep a standing water layer of 5 cm for 1 week
at flowering
Continue AWD cycles after flowering until
harvest
Scope for 10, 20, 25 and 30 cm with different
genotypes and different location
41. Water use efficiency under different irrigation
treatments
Treatments Total water use (cm) Average
total water
used (cm)
Water use
efficiency
(kg/ha/cm)
BRRIdhan
28
BRRIdhan
29
T1 112.20 122.20 117.2 58.53
T2 (10 cm) 92.20 97.20 94.7 69.48
T3 (20cm) 87.20 92.20 89.7 69.89
T4 (30cm) 82.20 87.20 84.7 69.19
Treatment details:
T1: continuous submergence (1 to 7 cm standing water)
T2, T3, T4: application of 5 cm irrigation water when water level in the pipe fell 10, 20 and 30
cm below the G.L., respectively.
Oliver et al., 2008
42. Water usage and water productivity of rice as influenced by
different systems of rice cultivation during kharif season
System of
rice
cultivation
No. of
irrigations
applied
Total water
Used
(cubic m/ha)
% Water saving
over
transplanted
rice
Grain yield
(kg/ha)
Transplanted
rice
33 16802 - 5732
SRI 27 14322 14.8 6014
AWD 23 13773 18.0 5376
Wet seeded
rice
39 15683 6.7 5175
Aerobic rice 24 9425 43.9 3582
Geethalakshmi et al. (2008)
43. Ground cover rice production system
Soil is constantly kept very
moist, but not flooded
Mulch- drying out and
developing deep cracks
Plastic sheet or pre-composted
straw
Checks the ET
Adds OM to soil
44. •The savings in irrigation water around 90 per cent in
Nanjing and up to 50 per cent in Beijing and Guangzhou
•This system reduced the significant nitrogen loss as a result
of volatalization of gaseous ammonia
Burkhard et al., 2005
45. Drip irrigation
• 25,000/acre
• 15 years life span
• 4.78
• 80% water reduction and 10% increase
in yield
Benefits:
• Increase in WUE
• Reduce the agrochemical application
by fertigation or chemigation
• Eliminates anaerobic decomposition
• Quality water can be delivered
Texas, Netafim
47. Future line of work
• Awareness about rice is not aquatic plant
• Standardization of AWD
• Weed management in aerobic and AWD
• Scope for sprinkler and drip irrigation
48.
49.
50. Average yields, Water balance and water use efficiency
Parameters
Beijing Nanjing Guangzhou
Puddle Plastic Puddle Plastic Puddle Plastic
Yield in the experiment 8.75 5.57 9.57 8.52 9.53 8.23
Irrigation (mm) 3750 1275 1666 99 420 308
Precipitation (mm) 390 394 462 462 770 787
Runoff (mm) 0 0 0 0 471 518
Net input (I + P – R, mm) 4140 1669 2128 561 720 577
Daily water consumption based
on net input (mm d–1)
30.2 10.8 21.7 3.9 7.7 4.6
Water requirement based on
irrrigation (m3/kg)
4.55 2.22 1.75 0.12 0.50 0.43
Water requirement based on net
input (m3/kg)
5.02 2.90 2.23 0.66 0.86 0.80
WUE based on irrigation
(kg/m3)
0.25 0.45 0.57 8.56 2.02 2.35
WUE based on water
applied(kg/m3)
0.22 0.34 0.45 1.52 1.16 1.25
Lin et al. (2003)