Rice Cropping Systems

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Rice Cropping Systems

• Peter R. Hobbs
• 611 Bradfield

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Rice Oryza sativa

• Most important tropical cereal crop.
• Oryza sativa most important 3 types
• Indica and Javonica tropical
• Japonica sub-tropical to temperate
• Oryza glaberrima African origin, upland rainfed
  type.
• Modern rices based on Taiwan germplasm with
  photo-insensitive, short strawed indica types.
  These have profuse tillering, high response to
  fertilizer and strong stems that resist lodging.

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World Crop Production
700
MaizeRiceSoybeansWheat
600
500
400
Million tonnes
300
200
100
0
1961
1998
Source FAO
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World Cereal ProductionAreas Saved Through
Improved Technology, 1950-1999
1,800
CEREAL PRODUCTION1949-51 650 million
tonnes1997-99 1,887 million tonnes
1,400
LAND SPARED
Million hectares
1,000
600
LAND USED
200
0
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
1999
Uses milled rice equivalentsSource FAO
Production Yearbooks and AGROSTAT
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Indian Wheat ProductionArea Saved Through
Adoption of High-Yield Technology
100
Cereals 1961 2000 Production, 11 74 Million
tonnes Av. Yield. t/ha 0.85 2.90 Population, Mil
lions 452 1,016
80
60
Million hectares
Land Saved
40
20
Land Used
0
1961
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
Preliminary estimated, Govt of India Source
FAO AGROSTAT, April 2000
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Rice

• Traditionally short day plant. Important in
  sub-tropical areas so plants set seed before
  cooler temperatures set in.
• Some traditional, main season types are
  photo-sensitive.
• Modern varieties weakly or non-photosensitive
  allows 2-3 crops to be grown per year.
• Deep water types highly to relatively insensitive
  important adaptation so they flower at right
  time.

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Rice Statistics 1999
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Rice Producing Areas in USA
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USA Rice Statistics
http//agronomy.ucdavis.edu/uccerice/main.htm
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Some issues in rice nutrition

• pH tends to neutral
• More availability phosphorus
• Nitrate to nitrous oxide denitrification
• Carbon dioxide to methane
• Ammonia volatalization nitrous oxides
• Burning residue 70 nitrogen loss
• Blue green algae, azolla etc provide N
• Zinc deficiency in alkaline soils
• High silica

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Lowland Rice

• Lowland rice grown in reduced soil able to do
  this through aerenchyma cells in the roots that
  provide oxygen so they can respire aerobically.
• Lowland rice has shallow root system, deeper in
  upland rice.
• Soils puddled in lowland rice to reduce
  percolation and use water to control weeds.
• Nitrogen is the major nutrient needed for high
  yield. Low nitrogen recovery in lowland rice
  30-40.

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Rice planting methods

• Dry seeded rice much like normal cereal crop
  upland rice system rows or hills.
• Transplanted crop major system for lowland rice
  puddled soils
• Direct seeded sprouted seeds on puddled soils
  lowland rice system
• Sown into standing water
• System of rice intensification SRI
• No-tillage rice
• Bed planted rice

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Seedbeds for rice transplanter
Drum seeder
Rice transplanter
Uprooting seedlings
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Rice Seeding in USA

• Dry seeded sowing into plowed land. Germinate and
  then flood
• Flood field and seed by plane into clear water.
  Soak seeds first.

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Rice Environments

• The ecosystems within which rice is grown are
  characterized by
• Elevation,
• Rainfall pattern,
• Depth of flooding and drainage,
• and by the adaptation of rice to these
  agroecological factors.

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Upland Rice

• Rice is direct seeded in non-flooded,
  well-drained soil on level to steeply sloping
  fields.
• Crops suffer from lack of moisture and inadequate
  nutrition, and current yields are very low.
• Upland rice makes up 13 percent of the world's
  harvested rice area and 4 percent of rice
  production.
• The uplands support millions of people, most of
  them at the subsistence level.
• The slash-and-burn agriculture that often follows
  logging in upland areas opens the way for serious
  soil erosion and degradation that impacts the
  lowland watershed.
• Improved technology is needed that will help
  rehabilitate degraded uplands and transform them
  into sustainable agroecosystems.

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Upland Rice

• Important in West Africa (60) and Tropical
  America (75) but also important in South and SE
  Asia (20).
• Usually mixed with other crops including maize
  and cassava
• Component of many shifting and semi-intensive
  cropping systems

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Rainfed Lowland Rice

• Rice is transplanted or direct seeded in puddled
  soil on level to slightly sloping, bunded or
  diked fields with variable depth and duration of
  flooding, depending on rainfall. Soils alternate
  from flooded to nonflooded,
• Yields vary depending on rainfall, cultivation
  practices, and use of fertilizer.
• Rainfed lowland rice makes up 25 percent of the
  world's harvested rice area and 17 percent of
  world production.
• Areas where rainfed lowland rice is the
  predominant ecosystem are among the world's most
  densely populated rural regions and home to some
  of the world's poorest rural and urban
  populations.

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Flood prone rice

• Rice is dry seeded at start of the rainy season
  on fields with medium to very deep flooding (50
  to more than 300 cm) from rivers and from tides
  in river mouth deltas.
• Soils cycle from flooded to non-flooded and may
  have severe problems of salinity and toxicity.
• The rice crop grows as flood water rises, with
  harvest after the water recedes.
• More than 15 million hectares in South and
  Southeast Asia are subject to various types of
  uncontrolled flooding. West Africa and Latin
  America also have some flood-prone rice land.
• Rice is often the only crop that can be grown in
  the flood-prone areas.
• Yields are low because of problem soils and
  unpredictable combinations of drought and flood,
  and crop failures are common.

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Flood prone rice
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Flood Prone Rice

• Mostly traditional varieties
• Low lying areas with 1-2 meter of flooding
• Low yields but can get 3t/ha, hard harvest.
• Fertile soils and association blue-green algae
• 2-4 crops per year short and long duration
  rice, dry season crops include legumes, oilseeds,
  wheat
• Irrigated rice crop in dry season is replacing
  this system.

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Irrigated Rice

• Rice is transplanted or wet seeded in puddled
  soil on leveled, bunded fields with water
  control, in both dry and wet seasons in the
  lowlands, in the summer at higher elevations, and
  during the dry season in flood prone areas.
• The crop is heavily fertilized. Using modern
  technology, yields can reach 5 tons per hectare
  in the wet season, more than 10 tons in the dry
  season.
• Irrigated rice makes up 55 percent of the world's
  harvested rice area and 75 percent of world rice
  production. It provides the major supply for
  urban consumers.
• Growth in irrigated rice production has been
  largely responsible for the recent stability of
  urban rice supplies and prices.
• The irrigated area devoted to rice is
  declining and yields are stagnating. Evidence is
  mounting that flooded rice soils are not
  resilient to intensification pressures, and that
  the productivity made possible by current
  technology may not be sustainable.
• Yet the irrigated system must produce even larger
  yields, economically and sustainably, if future
  populations are to be fed.

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System of Rice Intensification SRI

• Green Revolution was a genetic revolution
  coupled with agronomy
• Now we also need to look at environment, use of
  natural resources crop management and agronomy
• Can we achieve more with less?
• SRI System started in Madagascar, S.Africa.
• Farmers were getting 2t/ha whereas 8t/ha with
  SRI.
• Started in response to developing an alternative
  to slash and burn with upland rice get more
  yield in lowland areas and so save more fragile
  upland areas.

http//ciifad.cornell.edu/sri/
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SRI system Norm Uphoff

• Rice plants - Transplanting seedlings
• very young -- usually just 8-12 days old, with
  just two small leaves
• carefully and quickly to have minimum trauma to
  the roots
• singly, only one per hill instead of 3-4 together
  which causes root competition
• widely spaced to encourage greater root and
  canopy growth
• in a square grid pattern, 25x25 cm or wider --
  30x30 cm or 40x40 cm even up to 50x50 cm with the
  best quality soil

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SRI system

• Soil - Keeping it moist but well-drained and
  aerated, with good structure and organic matter
  to support biological activity. The quality and
  health of the soil is the key to best production.
  
• Water - Applying only a minimum of water during
  the vegetative growth period and then maintaining
  only a thin layer of water on the field during
  the grain production stage. Alternatively, to
  save labor time, some farmers flood and drain
  (dry) their fields in 3-5 day cycles with good
  results. Best water management practices depend
  on soil type, labor availability and other
  factors, so farmers should experiment on how best
  to apply the principle of having moist but
  well-drained soil while plants are growing.

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SRI system

• Nutrients - Augmenting soil nutrient supplies
  preferably with compost, made from any available
  biomass, though better quality compost such as
  with manure gives yield advantages. Chemical
  fertilizer can be used and generally gives better
  results than with no nutrient amendments, but it
  contributes less to good soil structure and
  active microbial communities in the rhizosphere
  than does organic matter. At least initially,
  nutrient amendments are not necessary to achieve
  higher yields with the other SRI practices.

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SRI system

• Weeds - Since weeds can become a problem in
  fields that are not kept flooded, weeding is
  necessary at least once or twice, starting 10-12
  days after transplanting, and preferably 3 or 4
  times before the canopy closes. Using a rotary
  hoe -- a simple, inexpensive, mechanical
  push-weeder, often called a rotary hoe-- has the
  advantage of aerating the soil at the same time
  that weeds are eliminated (they are left in the
  soil to decompose so their nutrients are not
  lost). Additional weedings beyond two can
  increase yield enough under most conditions to
  more than justify the added labor

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Questions

• How does rice get such high yields this way? By
  knowing the mechanism, maybe it can be used to
  improve rice yields in other systems.
• What happens if the soil is not puddled?
• What happens if you use seed instead of
  transplants?
• What happens if you use mulch?

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Rice-wheat systems

• Sub-tropical system with rice in wet, warm
  monsoon season and wheat in the dry cool winter
  season.
• 13.5 million hectares in South Asia
• Essential for food security in the region of 1.3
  billion people.
• 2 population growth rate so 26 million more
  mouths to feed each year NY State and Mass

RW area population 280 million RW area pop
density 517 /sq km
Nepal
Pakistan
Bangladesh
India
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R-W Systems Calendar
Month
Summer
Winter
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
J
F
M
A
Rice
Wheat
Wheat
Wheat
Rice-1
Rice-2
Wheat
Rice
NR
Wheat
Wheat
Wheat
GM
Rice
Wheat
There are also rotations of RW with Sugarcane
NR potato, vegetable, legume, oilseed
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RW systems and Conservation Agriculture

• Conservation agriculture produces more for less
• Based on no-tillage systems on flat or on ridges.
• Residue retention as mulch important
• Improves natural resource efficiency (water,
  inputs, people)
• Has environmental benefits. Improves farmer
  incomes and livelihoods.

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Surface Seeding

• Simplest No-Till
• Spread soaked or dry seed on saturated soil
• No machinery needed
• Mulch good for weed control
• Suitable for low lying, poorly drained soils
• Saves land preparation costs and time.
• Earlier planting, better yields

Normal
Surface
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No-Tillage with Inverted-T

• Based on inverted-T coulter from NZ
• Good where no loose residues including anchored
  straw
• Locally made and low cost
• Can adapt present farmer machinery
• Uses 15-25 less water
• Less weeds germinate
• Service providers

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Bed planting

• Locally made low cost bed maker cum seeder
• Uses 30-45 less water
• Can mechanically weed
• Enables better diversification
• Permanent beds
• Controlled traffic
• Better fertilizer efficiency
• Contract services

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Total System Perspective

• Want to promote RCTs in the whole system
• Rice reduce negative effects on soil
• Without puddling Direct seeded aerobic
• Zero-till
• Bed planting
• Other crops for better incomes and diversity
• Maize, legumes, oilseeds, vegetables

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CA Benefits in wheat include

• Higher yield because of timely planting and
  better stands (2-500Kg)
• Less cost (65-85/ha)
• More profit, improved livelihoods
• Increased water use efficiency (15-50)
• Increased Fertilizer efficiency (10-15)
• Less Diesel used (40-60 l/ha) less GHG emissions
• Less weeds germinate (50-65)
• More beneficial insects live in residues
• More soil biological activity
• Less lodging
• Improves Soil Organic Matter

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GHG Emission Reduction

• Carbon Dioxide
• Less Fuel Used as power for LP and Irrigation
• Fertilizer savings through more efficient
  placement
• Less wear and tear on tractor and implements
• SOM oxidation and CO2 release by tillage is more
  than in No-till.
• Methane 21 times more potent than CO2
• 200-300 kg C/ha from puddled TP rice
• The burning of crop residues also emits methane.
• Nitrous Oxide 310 times more potent CO2
• Any practice that improves fertilizer use
  efficiency!

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Traditional plowing
Rice on beds with 9t/ha and 60 savings water!!
Normal tilled field
No-till field
Flat
Ridges
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Future Research in RW

• Use new innovations in the total system no
  puddling in rice, crop diversification etc.
• Find ways to plant into loose residue so surface
  mulch is possible.
• Develop equipment that is affordable and fits
  power system of farmers and does a good job.
• Accelerate adoption using participatory
  approaches
• Monitor long term implications of the technology

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Reading material

• The Ecology of Tropical Food Crops Norman,
  Pearson and Searle 100-126
• IRRI web site www.irri.org
• Tropical Crops Monocotyledons Purseglove
  161-198
• Rice in Deep Water D. Catling IRRI book
• RW consortium web page www.rwc-prism.cgiar.org
• Agro-ecological Innovations Increasing Food
  Production with Participatory Development
  Norman Uphoff