Effects of Water-Saving Irrigation on Direct-Seeding Rice Yield and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in North China

Xiaoning Hang, Frederick Danso, Jia Luo, Dunxiu Liao, Jian Zhang and Jun Zhang
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Xiaoning Hang: Chongqing Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chongqing 401329, China
Frederick Danso: Key Laboratory of Crop Physiology & Ecology, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Jia Luo: Chongqing Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chongqing 401329, China
Dunxiu Liao: Chongqing Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chongqing 401329, China
Jian Zhang: Chongqing Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chongqing 401329, China
Jun Zhang: Key Laboratory of Crop Physiology & Ecology, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 7, 1-11

Abstract: Rice cultivation consumes more than half of the planet’s 70% freshwater supply used in agricultural production. Competing water uses and climate change globally are putting more pressure on the limited water resources. Therefore, water-saving irrigation (WSI) is recommended for rice production in water scares areas. The impact of WSI techniques on direct-seeding rice production and greenhouse gas emissions in North China is becoming increasingly important in the era of climate change. Therefore, we conducted a two-year field experiment on directly seeded rice to assess the impact of traditional flooding irrigation (CK) and three water saving irrigation (WSI) methods, including drip irrigation with an irrigation amount of 50 mm (DI 1 ) and 35 mm (DI 2 ) at each watering time and furrow wetting irrigation (FWI), on rice yield and greenhouse emissions. Generally, the WSI techniques decreased the number of rice panicles per m −2 , spikelet per panicle, 1000-grain weight and rice yield compared to CK. Rice yield and yield components of (DI 1 ) were significantly higher than (DI 2 ). The adoption of either (DI 1 ) or (FWI) showed insignificant variation in terms of rice yield and its yield components measured except for 1000-grain weight. The water productivity was 88.9, 16.4 and 11.4% higher in the FWI plot than the CK, DI 1 and DI 2 plots, respectively. The WSI decreased cumulative CH 4 emission significantly by 73.0, 84.7 and 64.4% in DI 1 , DI 2 and FWI, respectively, in comparison with CK. The usage of DI 2 triggered 1.4 and 2.0-fold more cumulative N 2 O emission compared to DI 1 and FWI, respectively. Area-scaled emission among the water-saving irrigation methods showed no significance. The yield-scaled emission in DI 1 and DI 2 and FWI were 101, 67.5 and 102%, respectively, significantly lower than CK. The adoption of FWI produced an acceptable rice yield with the lowest yield-scaled emission and highest water productivity among the irrigation practices. Our experiment demonstrates that dry direct-seeding with furrow irrigation can impact triple-wins of sustainable rice yield, high water-use efficiency and low GHG emissions in North China.

Keywords: rice production; CH 4; N 2 O; water productivity; global warming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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