Title: Development of Water Saving Irrigation Technique On Large Paddy Rice Area in Guangxi Region of China
Abstract: Through 21 years of research and experiment, a kind of non-project water saving irrigation technique for paddy rice has been developed in Guangxi province, China. The mechanism of this technique is to determine the optimal water demands for various growth stages of paddy rice with respect to different areas, soils and climate conditions, summarized as shallow water depth for transplant/recovery phase, being kept wet for pre-tiller phase, field drying for post-tiller phase, again shallow water depth for jointing/flowering/emulsifying phase, and finally being kept wet for yellow maturity phase. The technique saves significant amount of water over the traditional continuous inundation irrigation. It improves the water, fertility , aeration and thermal conditions of the soil and brings tiller into full play, so higher yield is acquired. Such irrigation method gives rise to 21.1% of water saving and 11.4% of yield increase. Based on experiments, this technique was applied for demonstration in 16000ha. area of paddy rice fields in 1990, and expanded to an area of 66,700ha. in 1991, then 82,800ha. in 1992, and finally reached to 950,000ha. which accounts for 40% of the total paddy rice area and approximately 70% of the paddy rice area in 1993. The technique renders tremendous economic, social and environmental benefits. The paper also describes the technical measures and organizational measures for its popularization, of which include the expert demonstration, the pilot demonstration farms for comparison and yield estimate, as well as widespread technical training. It has been demonstrated by facts that such water saving irrigation technique is an effective way out for those water-deficient areas, which deficiency is not due to scant water source. 1 Background Guangxi region is located in South China, where the annual rainfall varies from 1,300 to 1,500mm. Although water resources are relatively abundant, irrigation water saving for agricultural production is necessary in view of the following reasons. • The extreme unevenness of rainfall, temporal and spatial. Rainfall is concentrated between April and September from north to south Guangxi, which results in frequent occurrence of aridity in spring and fall, with drought representing more than 60% of the natural disasters. • Low regulation capacity of water resources facilities, less than 20% of the total water resources quantity.
Publication Year: 1998
Publication Date: 1998-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 4
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