Department of Education
Catbalogan City
Region VIII
Strategies for Producing Rice (Oryza Sativa) with less Water
Researchers:
Mary Gene A. Original
Research Adviser
Abstract
Rice is life for more than half of humanity. It is the grain that has shaped the cultures, diets,
and economies of billions of people in the world. Food security in the world is challenged by
increasing food demand and threatened by declining water availability. More recently, the increase
in area under biofuel crops at the cost of food crops is also threatening. Exploring ways to produce
more rice with less water is essential for food security. Water-saving rice production systems, such
as aerobic rice culture, system of rice intensification (SRI), ground-cover rice production system
(GCRPS), raised beds, and alternate wetting and drying (AWD), can drastically cut down the
unproductive water outflows and increase water-use efficiency (WUE). However, these
technologies can sometimes lead to some yield penalty, if the existing lowland varieties are used.
Other new approaches are being explored to increase water economy without compromise on
yield. These include the incorporation of the C4 photosynthetic pathway into rice to increase rice
yield per unit water transpired, the use of molecular biotechnology to develop rice varieties with
improved water-use efficiency, transpiration efficiency (TE), drought tolerance, and the
development of varieties for aerobic system, to achieve high and sustainable yields in no flooded
soil. Through the adoption of water-saving irrigation technologies, rice land will shift away from
being continuously anaerobic to being partly or even completely aerobic. These shifts will produce
profound changes in water conservation, soil organic matter turnover, nutrient dynamics, carbon
impounding, weed flora, and greenhouse gas emissions. Although some of these changes can be
positive, for example, water conservation and decreased methane emission, others might be
negative, for example, release of nitrous oxide from the soil and decline in soil organic matter. The
challenge will be to develop effective integrated natural–resource–management interventions,
which would allow profitable rice cultivation with increased soil aeration, while maintaining the
productivity, environmental safety, and sustainability of rice based ecosystems. This chapter
discusses the integrated approaches like genetics, breeding, and resource management to increase
rice yield and to reduce water demand for rice production.
CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.0 Introduction
Food security depends on the ability to increase production withdecreasing availability of
water to grow crops. Rice, as a submerged crop,is a prime target for water conservation because it
is the most widely grownof all crops under irrigation. To produce 1 kg of grain, farmers have
tosupply 2–3 times more water in rice fields than other cereals (Barker et al.,1998). In Asia, more
than 80% of the developed freshwater resources areused for irrigation purposes; about half of
which is used for rice production(Dawe et al., 1998). Rapidly depleting water resources threaten
the sustainabilityof the irrigated rice and hence the food security and livelihood of riceproducers
and consumers (Tuong et al., 2004). In Asia, 17 million hectare(Mha) of irrigated rice areas may
experience ‘‘physical water scarcity’’ and22 Mha may have ‘‘economic water scarcity’’ by 2025
(Tuong andBouman, 2002). There is also much evidence that water scarcity alreadyprevails in
rice-growing areas, where rice farmers need technologies to copewith water shortage and ways
must be sought to grow rice with lesseramount of available water (Tuong and Bouman, 2002).Rice
is very sensitive to water stress and attempts to reduce water inputsmay tax true yield potential
(Tuong et al., 2004). The challenge is to developnovel technologies and production systems that
would allow rice production to be maintained or increased at the face of declining water
availability. Former requires a possible shift from the traditional system of flooded rice togrowing
rice aerobically and the latter needs the development of highyielding varieties that thrive under
aerobic conditions (Castan˜eda et al.,2003). Several strategies are in vogue to reduce rice water
requirements, such as saturated soil culture (Borrell et al., 1997), alternate wetting and drying
(AWD; Li, 2001; Tabbal et al., 2002), ground-cover systems (Lin et al., 2003a,b), system of rice
intensification (SRI; Stoop et al., 2002), aerobic rice (Bouman, 2003), raised beds (Singh et al.,
2003), etc. Development of rice varieties through conventional breeding, marker-assisted selection
(MAS), and employing biotechnological tools for water-limited conditions are the areas of current
research (Atlin and Lafitte, 2002; Babu et al., 2003; Cattivelli et al., 2008; Ku et al., 2000). This
chapter discusses strategies and options to make rice production more water-efficient with
integrative use of crop improvement and management tools.
