Role of straw mulching in non-continuously flooded rice cultivation

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2006.01.001Get rights and content

Abstract

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivation under non-flooded (NF) condition is a new alternative to the conventional flooded (CF) rice cultivation system in the regions where rainfall and fresh water resources are limited. Non-flooded rice cultivation may mediate rice growth performance and mulching may be good practice to reduce evapotranspiration and increase water use efficiency (WUE). The research objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of non-flooded cultivation with straw mulching on the rice agronomic traits and water use efficiency of the second rice cropping season (late rice). The treatments were conventional flooded rice cultivation, non-flooded rice cultivations without (NF-ZM) and with rice straw mulching (NF-SM). Irrigation water was 19950 m3 ha−1 in 2003 and 15,850 m3 ha−1 in 2004 in the CF treatments and 7200 m3 ha−1 in 2003 and 5045 m3 ha−1 in 2004 in the non-flooded rice fields (NF-ZM and NF-SM treatments).

The field measurements showed that water seepage was 13,442 m3 ha−1 in the CF treatment, 5510 m3 ha−1 in the NF-ZM treatment and 5424 m3 ha−1 in the NF-SM treatment. Rice straw mulching decreased evapotranspiration by 33% and 63% (in 2003), 36.5% and 57.1% (in 2004) to the NF-ZM treatment and CF treatment, respectively. Compared with the NF-ZM treatment, mulch application significantly increased the leaf area per plant, main root length, tap root length and root dry weight per plant of crop. The yield of the NF-SM treatment (2003: 6489 kg/hm2; 2004: 8574.8 kg/hm2) was similar with the value of the CF treatment (2003: 6811.5; 2004: 8630.5 kg/hm2), and much higher than the NF-ZM treatment (2003: 4716; 2004: 6394.8 kg/hm2). The order of irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) and water use efficiency were as follows: NF-SM > NF-ZM > CF.

Introduction

Conventional flooded (CF) rice cultivation in Asia provides more than 75% of the world's rice supply for half the earth's main staple food (Buresh et al., 2000, Cabangon et al., 2002). Flooded rice cultivation requires a standing water depth of 5–10 cm in the paddy fields throughout the growing season prior to harvest. The consumption of fresh water by rice crop ranges from 0.5 m3 m−2 (De Datte et al., 1973) to 3 m3 m−2 (Hukkeri and Sharma, 1980) during a rice growth season. This is challenged by the increasing shortage of water resource in the world and by the limitation of water resource in the seasonal drought areas. Alternatives to the conventional flooded rice cultivation were developed worldwide to reduce water consumption and produce more rice with less water (Guerra et al., 1998).

In southeast China, seasonal drought is prevailing in summer. This is significant different from the general opinion of most people. In southeast China, because the total rainfall is plentiful, it is generally accepted that there is no water stress. However, in fact, the whole area of seasonal drought has reached to 6.181 × 105 km2 in these areas (Chen and Zhang, 2002).

Seasonal drought exerts a tremendous influence on physiological metabolism, growth, yield, and corn quality of crops, especially on lowland rice. In southeast China, continuous double- and triple-cropping rice systems, in which two or three rice crops are grown on the same field each year, currently account for about 25% of global rice production (Cassman and Pingali, 1995). However, the rice of second crop season (late rice) is mainly grown in drought periods in these areas. So, the growth and production of rice cultivation in second cropping season is affected greatly by water limited.

Studies of the water management have been carried out in the conventional flooded rice ecosystems (Walker, 1999, Bouman and Tuong, 2001, Belder et al., 2004). Numerous water efficient irrigation regimes for rice have therefore been tested (Mao, 2001), but they are difficult to apply and require large amounts of irrigation water during the rice growing season (Liu et al., 2003). Thus, since the 1980s, non-flooded (NF) rice cultivation has been adopted and developed as a new rice cultivation technique in many regions of China (Zhao and Xiao, 1982, Peng et al., 1999).

Non-flooded rice cultivation may decrease water demand due to the reduction of evapotranspiration and seepage loss (Huang, 1999, Tang, 2001, Huang et al., 2003). However, compared with continuously flooded rice system, rice cultivation under non-flooded conditions prevailing in Asia, namely rain-fed rice, leads to less stable productivity and lower grain yield (Tran, 1985). The disadvantages arising from this can be overcome by an alternative way of growing lowland rice using polyethylene film mulch under non-flooded conditions, namely plastic film-mulching cultivation system (PFMCS) (Liang et al., 1999, Peng et al., 1999). PFMCS is characterized by its striking efficiency in maintenance of soil moisture and improvement of nutrient transformations and availability (Liang et al., 1999, Peng et al., 1999). It is, therefore, an alternative method of growing lowland rice in water-deficit regions (Liang et al., 1999, Peng et al., 1999). Liang et al. (2000) also successfully used kraft paper as mulching materials instead of plastic film in field trials. But the plastic film and kraft paper is expensive and laborious for Chinese farmers. So, mulched with half-decomposed rice straw were studied in recent years (Shi et al., 2002, Huang et al., 2003).

Quantitative understanding of the water balance of the rice system, in particular with respect to evapotranspiration and seepage, usually the main components of the rice field water loss, is important for efficient use of water resources (Roel et al., 1999). Studies of the water management in different rice ecosystems have been carried out respectively, especially in conventional flooded soils (Walker, 1999, Bouman and Tuong, 2001, Belder et al., 2004). However, experimental evidence is still scarcely reported in international literature. Furthermore, there are few studies on water-saving irrigation and water-saving measures to carry out in southeast China. In this experiment, we set up a new farming and water management system, which is the rotation of rice cultivation under flooded (the first cropping season, early rice) and non-flooded (the second cropping season) conditions. In the second cropping season, we considered two options for reducing water consuming, which included rice cultivation under non-flooded condition without standing water and mulching with rice straw. A 2-year field experiment was conducted with successive observation and measuring to compare the components of water loss and the effect to rice growth as well as water use efficiency (WUE) under different treatments in dry period of the second rice season.

Section snippets

Site description

The field experiments were conducted in Yujiang county, Jiangxi province in southeast China (N28°15′, E116°55′) in 2003 and 2004. The research area is representative of a typical subtropical moist climate with a mean annual temperature of about 17.7 °C; a maximum daily temperature of around 40 °C in summer; an average of 262 frost-free days and a rainfall of 1750 mm, about 50% of which falls from March to early July. The uneven distribution of rainfall causes strong seasonal drought in summer

Irrigation water

The non-flooded cultivation system had shorter time with standing water depth in the field than the conventional flooded cultivation system. The days with flooding irrigation in the flooded plots for late rice were 63 in 2003 and 67 in 2004. (Table 2), less than the 85 days reported for Tebonnet in Arkansas (Helms and Slaton, 1994). The number of days with standing water in the field of the non-flooded plots ranged from 5 in 2003 to 10.5 in 2004 and was less in the NF-SM than NF-ZM treatments.

Water management and plant growth

Field seepage and evapotranspiration were two main ways of water loss in paddy field. Because of the flooded duration in non-flooded plots was much shorter than the flooded plots, the water loss from evapotranspiration and field seepage was also less than the flooded plots.

In the non-flooded plots, mulching can reduce evapotranspiration. The reasons for this were that: (1) in order for loss water by evaporation from a mulched soil, the water must change from a liquid to a vapor at the soil

Conclusions

The present study shows that rice cultivation under non-flooded condition with mulching could maintain its production and reduce water consumption. The highest IWUE and WUE consistently occurred in the NF-SM treatment in this study, and the yield of the NF-SM treatment was very similar with CF, meaning that rice non-flooded cultivation with rice straw mulching is an optimal water-saving measure in the seasonal drought area of southeast China. Furthermore, we set up a new rotation system in the

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National 863 Project “Integration and demonstration of water-saving technologies in the seasonal drought area in Southeast China (Yingtan, Jiangxi Province)”. Grant No. 2002AA2Z4331. National Ministry of Science and Technology, Key “863” Water-saving program”, 2002–2005.

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