PRESENTED BY

Subbalakshmi Lokanadhan

Professor (Agronomy)Directorate of Water Technology Centre,

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University

Coimbatore – 641 003.

Water Saving Technologies in Rice Cultivation :

Up-scaling at Farmers’ Holding in Villupuram district

of Tamilnadu

The financial support obtained for implementation at the farmers field by IOCL (SRPL), Chennai as CSR Project is kindly acknowledged.

Dr.Subbalakshmi Lokanadhan, P.Keerthanan, Dr.P.Sridhar. and Dr.S.Panneerselvam

Directorate of Water Technology Centre,

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU)

Corresponding Email: kplokanadhan@yahoo.co.in

Contributing Authors

Objective : To improve the water usage efficiency, grain yield and livelihood by

implementing water saving technologies for sustaining rice production in the villages of Villupuram District of Tamil Nadu by spreading rice technologies such as System of Rice Intensification (SRI), Alternate Wetting & Drying Irrigation (AWDI) & Direct Seeding using Drum seeder (DSR) to the farmers

RICE ECOSYSTEM IN INDIARICE ECOSYSTEM IN INDIA

UPLAND IRRIGATED WET IRRIGATED DRY

INTERMEDIATE RAINFED SHALLOW RAINFED DEEP WATER

(Rice knowledge bank, IRRI, 2001)

More Crop Per

Drop

More Crop Less

Drop

By Improving

Water Use

Efficiency

Improved irrigation methods in groundwater/ lift irrigated areas would address the challenges

Adoption of Water Saving technologies

Project Locations –Villupuram District

Project implementation Villages

SRI

25

29.1

22

24.125

24.1

30.7

22

25

22.2

33.3

2221.1

27.8

21.1

18.7

22.2

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Con. SRI % water savingFarmers

Wat

er

pro

du

ctiv

ity

(kg/

m3

)

% W

ate

r sa

vin

g

Water Productivity and saving as influenced by method of rice cultivation

27.8

31.1 30.8

38.5

32

37.5

33.5

29.6 28.8

35.2

31.2

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

AWDI FP % water savingFarmers

Wat

er p

rod

uct

ivit

y(k

g/m

3)

% W

ate

r sa

vin

g

Water Productivity and % water Saving as influenced by AWDI & Continuous submergence

AWDI

11.110.7

5.2

9.8

13.1

14.3

6.8

12.7

10.8

9.28.6

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

FP AWDI % YIELD INCREASE

Farmers

Gra

in Y

ield

t/h

a)

% y

ield

incr

ease

Crop Productivity and % yield increase as influenced by AWDI & Continuous submergence

Field day

Capacity building Programme

IOCL-Team and Officials Visit:

Conventional planting system : 1200 - 1390 mm

SRI : 940 mm -1050 mm

AWDI : 850 mm -1150 mm

Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) : 950-1100 mm

Water Requirement Recorded In The Project Area

Physical target & Achievements with Impact area

S.N

Act

ivit

ies

2018-19 2019-20 2020-21Ta

rget

(ac

)

Ach

ieve

met

(ac)

Imp

act

(ac)

Targ

et (

ac)

Ach

ieve

met

(ac)

Imp

act

(ac)

Targ

et (

ac)

Ach

ieve

met

(ac)

Imp

act

(ac)

1. SRI 25 25 78.9 25 25 85.2 25 25 142.5

2. AWDI 25 25 77.3 25 25 104.7 25 25 127.5

Rice is the principle food crop of Tamilnadu state, cultivated

in large area with crop area distribution in all the districts ofthe state under irrigated or rain fed eco-systems. Among themajor cereals grown rice crop consume major amount ofwater and the water use efficiency is also low compared toother field crops. There are promising technologies on watersaving in rice and these were advocated and up-scaled to thefarmers in Villupuram district of Tamilnadu State .Theretechniques were popularised among poor land holdingfarmers in rice growing locations. The main objective of thestudy was to bring awareness among rural farmers on watersaving technologies in Rice production, thereby increasingwater use efficiency and enhanced grain yield. Fielddemonstrations were carried out in selected locations fordifferent water saving technologies like System of RiceIntensification (SRI), Alternate Wetting and Drying Irrigation(AWDI) and Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) in rice crop cultivation.The observations and bio-metric data were recorded in thetagged area in the demonstration field plots. The average

mean data was computed and inferred.

In the demonstrations conducted, the conventional

planting system recorded water requirement from 1200 -1390 mm, 940 mm -1050 mm in SRI, AWDI recorded 850mm -1150 mm and Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) 950-1100mm . Simple and affordable field water tube as tool wasmuch useful for irrigation scheduling in rice cultivationwith the principle of alternate wetting and dryingmethod, thereby saving a sizable quantity of irrigationwater over continuous submergence of water. Theknowledge of using the tool was also demonstrated. Theshallow depth of irrigation was guided through use offield water tube and it facilitated, the farmers to takedecision as to when to irrigate the rice field and howmuch to irrigate appropriately. The quantity of waterrequired to produce one kilogram of rice was 2200 -2950 litres in conventional planting compared to 1440-1880 litres in SRI system. In AWDI, it recorded 750 mm -1050 mm and 950mm - 1100mm in DSR. The grain yieldobtained with water use efficiency trend in the differenttechnologies up-scaled is discussed in this paper.Increase in the grain yields obtained with water savingmade in rice crop made the farmers confident on thewater saving technologies and its adoption in rice

cultivation in the District.

THANK YOU