A Farm-Scale Water Balance Assessment of Various Rice Irrigation Strategies Using a Bucket-Model Approach in Spain

Sílvia Cufí (), Gerard Arbat, Jaume Pinsach, Blanca Cuadrado-Alarcón, Arianna Facchi, Josep M. Villar, Farida Dechmi and Francisco Ramírez de Cartagena
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Sílvia Cufí: Department of Chemical and Agricultural Engineering and Technology, University of Girona, Carrer de Maria Aurèlia Capmany, 61, 17003 Girona, Spain
Gerard Arbat: Department of Chemical and Agricultural Engineering and Technology, University of Girona, Carrer de Maria Aurèlia Capmany, 61, 17003 Girona, Spain
Jaume Pinsach: Department of Chemical and Agricultural Engineering and Technology, University of Girona, Carrer de Maria Aurèlia Capmany, 61, 17003 Girona, Spain
Blanca Cuadrado-Alarcón: Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (IAS), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Campus Alameda del Obispo, Avda. Menéndez Pidal s/n, 14004 Cordoba, Spain
Arianna Facchi: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences–Production, Landscape, Agroenergy, University of Milan, Via Celoria 2, 20133 Milan, Italy
Josep M. Villar: Department of Chemistry, Physics and Environmental and Soil Sciences, University of Lleida, 25003 Lleida, Spain
Farida Dechmi: Agrifood Research and Technology Centre of Aragon, Department of Agricultural and Forest Systems and the Environment (Soil and Irrigation EEAD-CSIC Associated Unit), Avda. Montañana 930, 50059 Zaragoza, Spain
Francisco Ramírez de Cartagena: Department of Chemical and Agricultural Engineering and Technology, University of Girona, Carrer de Maria Aurèlia Capmany, 61, 17003 Girona, Spain

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 19, 1-22

Abstract: Making effective decisions about scaling up on-farm irrigation practices to the district level requires a comprehensive assessment of irrigation management at the farm level. In this context, a bucket-type water mass balance model was developed, calibrated, and validated over five irrigation seasons on a 121-hectare rice farm located in the lower Ter River valley (north-east Spain), to assess the water use efficiency and the impact of different irrigation practices on water savings. The model was implemented considering the spatial variability of the soils within the farm. It showed a satisfactory performance in both the calibration (2020, 2021, 2022) and validation (2023, 2024) cropping seasons, with NSE values greater than 0.50, PBIAS lower than ±20%, and RSR lower than 0.70. After model validation, the simulation of alternative water management practices revealed that the 10-day fixed-turn irrigation reduced irrigation water use by 30% compared to the traditional water management, although it may negatively impact rice yield. Simulations of an early irrigation cut-off at the end of the season and dry seeding with delayed flooding accounted for 17% and 15% irrigation water savings, respectively. The implementation of the no-runoff practice only accounted for a 6% reduction in water use. The water-saving potential of the simulated strategies was mainly driven by shortening the flooded period of rice paddies, thus demonstrating that managing the ponding water level is critical to diminishing water use in rice irrigation.

Keywords: water-saving; water management; modelling; Mediterranean; water use efficiency; agro-hydrological model; irrigation practices (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: 2025
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