Enhancement of water storage capacity in wetland rice fields through deepwater management practice

Paddy field storage of rainfall by bunds is like a rainwater cistern system during the rainy season. Deepwater management practice in paddy fields might be good for rice production and water storage capacity at the same time. The study was conducted in an experiment testing two water management treatments with six rice variety treatments using two lysimeter experiments. The results revealed that deepwater management significantly affected rice production. On the other hand, deepwater management increased the effective rainfall (70 mm) and percolation (225 mm). The runoff coefficient under deepwater management decreased from 0.67 to 0.53. It was reasonable to conclude that the deepwater management provided more water storage capacity during the growing season. Finally, water productivity results point out that even though the volume of input water under deepwater management had increased, deepwater management still can generate higher water productivity. It looks as if it is pointless to save water during the rainy season. On the contrary, if excess water is available in rivers, it should be delivered in timely fashion to the wetland rice fields to increase effective rainfall and the excess saved by maintaining adequate percolation to replenish groundwater, without having to follow strict water conservation measures. Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.