Irrigation
A.R. Kiani; M.R. Yazdani; M.T. Feyzbakhsh
Abstract
Introduction: In Golestan province, despite the lack of water resources, traditional rice cultivation, a crop with high water consumption, is increasing due to economic justification. This issue has become one of the main problems of the province's agricultural sector in recent years. In order to prepare ...
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Introduction: In Golestan province, despite the lack of water resources, traditional rice cultivation, a crop with high water consumption, is increasing due to economic justification. This issue has become one of the main problems of the province's agricultural sector in recent years. In order to prepare the planting bed (puddled transplanting) in the traditional method of rice production, a significant amount of irrigation water is used before planting the seedlings in the main land. Moreover, the plant is in the water during the growing season, which causes high water losses by surface water evaporation and deep penetration. Rice direct seeding cultivation is a method that has been considered in the world for various reasons, including higher water productivity. Currently, reports indicate that more than 50% of groundwater resources are extracted and allocated annually for rice cultivation in the region investigated. In general, field information and observations indicate that the level of paddy cultivation is increasing in the province. In the past few decades, agricultural policymakers have sought to restrict and ban rice cultivation in the country, except in Gilan and Mazandaran provinces. The rationale behind this decision is high water consumption, declining groundwater aquifers and long-term instability of water resources. The developed strategy did not work effectively, as it did not consider the benefits of the farmers in the short run. The increasing trend in the area under paddy fields from 1995 to 1500 hectares per year shows the unsuccessfulness of this up-to-down strategy.Materials and Methods: A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of rice cultivation and irrigation methods on yield, water consumption and water productivity over two rice cropping seasons (2019–2020) in northern Iran (Gorgan Agricultural Research Station). Irrigation method as the main factor in four levels (permanent flooding, intermittent as wet and dry, sprinkler, tape) and cultivation method in three levels (direct seed in dry bed, non-puddled transplanting and traditional transplanting) in the form of a strip design. The plot was based on a randomized complete block design with three replications. The applied water, yield and some yield components and water productivity were measured and calculated during the growing seasons.Results and Discussion: The results showed that in all irrigation methods, yield was significantly reduced by changing the traditional seeding transplanting to dry seed. The amount of water applied in sprinkler and drip irrigation methods from traditional seedlings was significantly reduced as compared to direct seed seeding. Dry seed cultivation, however, consumed more water than traditional transplanting in the flood irrigation treatments (wet and dry and permanent). The highest yield (8206 kg/ha) was obtained for traditional seedling cultivation by flood irrigation, and no significant difference was observed between the yields for the other irrigation methods. In general, changing the irrigation systems had a greater effect on water consumption than changing the rice cultivation method. In addition, changing the cultivation method had a greater effect on changing the type of irrigation systems. In traditional transplanting cultivation, the yield decreased by about 14, 9 and 11%, respectively, by changing the irrigation systems from permanent flood irrigation to sprinkler, wet and dry, and drip irrigation. The highest water use was observed for flood irrigation method in direct seeding (12490 m3/ha) and direct transplanting (11967 m3/ha).Conclusion: Currently, farmers cultivate rice by transplanting in padded land irrigated by flooding techniques in Golestan province, which results in high water consumption (about 13,000 m3/ha). By changing the irrigation method from flood irrigation to drip for traditional transplanting cultivation, water consumption decreased by about 39% and as a result water productivity increased by about 22%, albeit a 11% reduction in yield occurred. With the conversion of traditional transplanting seedling by flood irrigation to non-puddled transplanting by drip irrigation, the yield decreased by about 24% and the amount of water by about 45%, and water productivity in this case reached 0.9 kg/m3. This can be considered as the best alternative for conserving both water resources and production. If only reducing water consumption is the main priority (regardless of yield reduction), the best treatments are drip irrigation with direct seeding, non-puddled transplanting and then traditional seedling, respectively. If there is a sprinkler irrigation system in the field, this option is given priority in the direct seeding and non-puddled transplanting. If changing the irrigation system is not considered, the use of intermittent irrigation (as a wet and dry) with non-puddled transplanting, traditional methods and direct seeding are preferred, respectively.
M. Karimi Fard; M. Zakerinia; A.R. Kiani; Mohammadtaghi Feyzbakhsh
Abstract
Introduction: Rice is the second most important edible grain after wheat in Iran. The most important factor for sustainable production in rice production lands, is water. Almost 75 percent of the world's rice is produced from paddy fields and rice is the largest consumer of water among all crops. Its ...
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Introduction: Rice is the second most important edible grain after wheat in Iran. The most important factor for sustainable production in rice production lands, is water. Almost 75 percent of the world's rice is produced from paddy fields and rice is the largest consumer of water among all crops. Its growth is significantly affected by climate change and water scarcity. This research was carried out to compare the direct cultivation and transplanting of rice under different irrigation methods from the point of view of water productivity. Material and Methods: The current work was designed as split plot based on randomized complete block design with 6 treatments and three replications in 18 plots with 6 m wide and 12 m length (72 m 2) in area of approximately 1500 m2 at the Agricultural Research Station of Golestan province in spring and the summer of 2018. Treatments including three levels of basin irrigation, sprinkler and drip (tape) irrigation were considered as main factors and two methods of direct cultivation and transplanting were considered as sub-factors. Results and Discussion: The results of analysis of variance showed that the effect of irrigation and sowing method on the yield of rice were significant at 0.01 level probability. The highest amount of biological yield in transplanting was obtained by basin irrigation (8177 kg/ha) and in direct seeding in basin irrigation and taper irrigation (7375 and 6836 kg/ha, respectively). The highest 1000-grain weight in transplanting method was obtained in basin irrigation and direct seeding method in traditional irrigation and tape irrigation. The highest number of filled grains in the panicle was observed in the basin irrigation treatment in transplanting, with significant difference compared to the amount observed in direct seeding. Traditional irrigation between planting methods had not significant effect on the number of hollow grains; while in sprinkler and tape irrigation (with an average of 51 and 56 for sprinkler and tape irrigation, respectively), the number of hollow grains had a higher rate in direct seeding (with an average of 41 and 45 for sprinkler and tape irrigation). The results showed that basin irrigation with 8177 kg/ha grain yield in transplanting method and basin and tape irrigations with 7375 and 6836 kg/ha in direct seeding method had the highest grain yield. Sprinkler irrigation had the lowest paddy yields in transplanting (4188 kg/ha) and direct seeding (5712 kg/ha). Tape irrigation with 7390 and 6840 m3 of consumed water, resulted in lower water consumption compared to traditional irrigation (10700 and 1693 m3), respectively. The highest amount of water use efficiency was obtained in direct and tape irrigation (0.99 kg/m3) and in traditional and tape irrigation (0.76 and 0.66 kg/m3, respectively). Conclusion: Adjusting water consumption both through lower water consumption and reduced water wastage can lead higher water productivity of rice production systems creating sustainable rice production systems. In transplanting method, tape irrigation and traditional irrigation had higher water use efficiency than sprinkler irrigation, although a significant water use reduction in tape irrigation rather than basin irrigation should be analyzed economically at real water prices. Overall, in this study, the tape irrigation method, by reducing water consumption, was able to increase water productivity and maintain the yield of rice in direct cultivation. Sprinkler irrigation had the lowest yield of rice in transplanting and direct cultivation. Problems such as lack of uniformity of spraying and waste water through the wind as well as poor quality of sprinklers are the main reasons for the decrease of the efficiency of sprinkler irrigation.
