Feasibility of drip irrigation in rice cultivation

Abstract

Rice is cultivated in all type of ecosystems and its productivity is being a challenge in the upcoming decades due to growing water scarcity, frequent monsoon failure, increasing soil moisture stress, labour scarcity and invasive pests and diseases. So we need to find out a suitable water management techniques for rice that can ensure "more rice per drop" with less labour, energy, input and capital investment. Drip irrigation has proved its superiority over other methods of irrigation due to the direct application of water and nutrients in the vicinity of the root zone. Because of its low water use with a reasonable yield, drip irrigated rice has greater scope in areas where water availability is limited especially in well irrigated area. However, the yield of drip irrigated rice is still lower than the transplanted rice. The productivity could be enhanced by fine tuning the crop management and developing special high-yielding rice varieties for drip irrigated rice for sustainable and viable aerobic rice systems.