Plastic mulching improves the water use efficiency and productivity of direct seeded and transplanted fine rice *Mubshar Hussain1, Shahid Farooq1 and Safdar Ali2 1
Department of Agronomy, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Pakistan Directorate of Land Reclamation, Lahore, Pakistan * Corresponding authors’ Email:
[email protected] 2
Abstract Water scarcity around the globe and climate change challenges has forced the researchers to develop alternative production systems with higher water use efficiency. Direct seeded rice is the emerging water saving rice production system having higher water use efficiency. Field experiment was conducted to assess the role of different mulch systems in improving water use efficiency and productivity in direct seeded and transplanted rice. Three different rice production systems viz., transplanted rice with continuous flooding, two weeks continuous flooding after transplanting and direct seeding with supplemental irrigation only were evaluated under two ground cover systems i.e., plastic and straw mulching with no mulch taken as control. Super Basmati was used as experimental material. Continuously flooded transplanted rice with plastic mulching resulted in higher paddy yield (4.04 t ha-1); while performance of no mulch direct seeding remained poor in this regard. Two weeks flooded transplanted rice with plastic mulching followed continuous flooding in paddy yield (3.94 t ha-1). Continuously flooded transplanted rice with plastic mulching observed substantial improvement in yield related attributes such as panicle length, number of grains per panicle and 1000 grain weight. Plastic mulching improved the productivity and water use efficiency of transplanted as well as direct seeded rice. Higher water use efficiency was observed in direct seeded rice with plastic mulching as it was grown on supplemental irrigations. In crux productivity and water use efficiency of transplanted and especially direct seeded rice can be improved by using plastic film as mulch in current scenarios of water shortage. Key Words: mulching, rice production systems, water use efficiency, productivity Introduction Rice is the world’s most important food that nourishes approximately more than half the population of the world. The inhabitants of Asia are in particular depending on rice for fulfillment of their dietary requirements. Rice has been grasping a vital role in shaping the cultures, societies and industries. Rice is the third largest crop after wheat and cotton and second major grain crop of Pakistan which accounts for 5.9 % of value added in agriculture and 1.3 % in gross domestic product of Pakistan (Govt. of Pakistan 2010-11). Water scarcity is a great threat to our agriculture due to massive exploitation of existing water resources while paying no consideration to construction of new reservoirs. Agriculture ingests 70 % of world water use (IWMI 2007). Water is the chief factor limiting crop production in many parts of the world, even in areas where water for irrigation is currently abundant; concerns are increasing about its future availability (Rijsberman 2006). Worldwide increase in demand and price of Basmati rice has led the Pakistani farmers to put more area under rice although the available water is not sufficient to grow the crop successfully. Moreover, in the present scenario of labor shortage, there is a dire need to find alternative means of growing rice, in place of conventionally flooding method which has high water and labor requirements. Some technologies under trial to reduce water loss and increase the water productivity of the rice crop include saturated soil culture (Thompson 1999), alternate wetting and drying (Cabangon et al. 2002; Li and Barker 2004), ground-cover systems (Tao et al. 2006), system of rice intensification (Vijayakumar et al. 2006), aerobic rice (Bouman et al. 2007) and raised beds (Choudhury et al. 2007). Rice cultivation rd
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under non-flooded conditions (aerobic) is an alternative to the conventional rice cultivation system in regions where rainfall and fresh water resources are limited. Input water savings of 35–57 % have been reported for aerobic (dry seeded) rice sown into non-puddled soil with the soil kept near saturation or field capacity compared with continuously flooded (5 cm) transplanted rice (Peng et al. 2006; Bhushan et al. 2007). Non-flooded rice cultivation may decrease water demand due to the reduction of seepage, percolation and evaporation losses (Bouman et al. 2005). Aerobic rice has the advantages of flowering earlier leading to reduction in crop duration. (Santhi et al., 1998; Farooq et al. 2006), economical, time and labor saving method and the yields are also comparable, if crop is properly managed (Atlin et al. 2006). However, yields were reduced due to iron or zinc deficiency and increased incidence of nematodes. Mulching is the process of placing a uniform layer of straw, wood fiber, wood chips etc. on bare soil to check loss of water by evaporation. Mulches comprising of crop residues are an effective way of reducing evaporation and aid in conserving soil moisture. Mulch offers a moist and shaded growing zone which suppresses weed growth (Singh et al. 2007). It is well-known that the use of soil cover has an important role mainly in the conservation of soil moisture and in weed control without use of herbicides (Liu et al. 2003; Singh et al. 2007). To achieve dual goal of increasing food production and saving water, non-flooded mulching cultivation has been adopted and developed as a new rice production technique in recent years (Qin et al. 2006). Effect of mulching on conserving moisture and increasing productivity of crops had also been reported in rice crop (Xu et al. 2007). There are reports indicating that this new technique improves water use efficiency and grain yield of rice (Zhang et al. 2008). It was hypothesized that different mulch systems will decrease the evaporation losses thus improving water use efficiency and productivity of direct seeded and transplanted fine rice. Methods This field study was conducted to evaluate the role of different mulch systems in water saving of direct seeded and transplanted rice. Three different rice production systems viz., transplanted rice with continuous flooding, two weeks continuous flooding after transplanting and direct seeding with supplemental irrigation only were evaluated under two ground cover systems i.e., plastic and straw mulching with no mulch taken as control. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with split plot arrangements keeping rice production systems in main and mulch systems in sub plots with a net plot size of 3 × 5 m. Rice nursery was sown with dry bed method on 20th June 2012. The rice genotypes Super Basmati, was used as experimental material with seed rate of 1 kg per marla. The nursery was fertilized and irrigated properly. The experimental site was thoroughly prepared for rice transplanting by cultivating the field for 2-3 times with tractor-mounted cultivator each followed by planking. Rice nursery was transplanted manually to the plots on 20th July after flooding the plots. Direct seeding was done on the same date of nursery raising on well prepared seedbed. Fertilizers were applied at the rate of 150 kg N and 100 kg P2O5 ha-1 in the form of urea and DAP. Half of nitrogen and whole of phosphorus were applied at sowing, while remaining nitrogen at the time of tillering. The weeds were controlled by the use of Clover @ 200 mL acre-1. Plant protection measures were adopted to keep crop free of insects and diseases. The crop was harvested on 25th October 2012. Ten random selected plants from each plot were used to record plant height, panicle length and number of grains per panicle. Three random samples each of 1000 grains from each seed lot were weighed and averaged to get 1000-grain weight. Each plot was harvested, tied into bundles, sundried and weighed to record biological yield. After threshing the bundles grain yield of each plot was taken and converted into ha-1 basis using unitary method. Harvest index and water use efficiency were also calculated.
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The collected data were collected using standard procedures and were analyzed by using Fisher’s analysis of variance technique and LSD test at 5% probability was used to compare the differences among treatments, means (Steel et al. 1997). Results and Discussion The results of the study indicated that different rice production systems had significant effects on panicle length, number of grains per panicle and 1000-grain weight while; non-significant effects on plant height of rice (Table 1). Maximum panicle length, number of grains per panicle and 1000-grain weight was observed in continuously flooded transplanted rice while performance of direct seeded rice remained poor in this regard (Table 1). Different mulch systems had significant effects on panicle length and 1000 grain weight while non-significant effects on plant height and number of grains per panicle. Maximum panicle length and 1000 grain weight was observed in plastic mulching and straw mulch followed the plastic mulching in this regard while bare ground remained poor in this regard (Table 1). Interactions among rice production and mulch systems had significant effects on plant height, panicle length, number of grains per panicle and 1000 grain weight. Direct seeded rice with plastic and straw mulching observed peak plant height against the minimum in 2 weeks flooded transplanted rice with straw mulching (Table 1). Continuously flooded transplanted rice system observed maximum panicle length, number of grains per panicle and 1000-grain weight while direct seeded rice with bare ground and straw mulching resulted in panicles of smaller length, lesser number of grains per panicle and lighter 1000-grains (Table 1). Table 1: Effect of different mulch systems on plant height and yield related attributes of rice grown under different rice production systems Treatments Rice production systems (S) S1 = Transplanting continuous flooding S2 = Transplanting 2 weeks flooding S3 = Direct seeding LSD at p 0.05 Mulch systems (M) M1 = Control (No mulch) M2 = Plastic mulching M3 = Straw mulching LSD at p 0.05 Interactions S1M1 S1M2 S1M3 S2M1 S2M2 S2M3 S3M1 S3M2 S3M3 LSD at p 0.05
Plant height (cm)
Panicle length (cm)
Number of grains per panicle
1000-grain weight (g)
105.4 101.3 110.9 NS
24.04 a 22.39 ab 20.15 b 3.31
126.4 a 119.3 a 111.3 b 7.53
19.42 a 18.04 b 16.89 c 0.66
103.90 111.20 102.50 NS
20.79 b 24.59 a 21.21 ab 3.36
116.1 126.0 114.9 NS
17.15 b 19.75 a 17.46 b 1.82
106.4 ab 108.6 ab 101.3 ab 103.7 ab 107.4 ab 92.85 b 101.6 ab 117.7 a 113.4 a 18.13
23.81 ab 26.28 a 22.04 bcd 19.72 cd 24.51 ab 22.95 abc 18.83 d 23.00 abc 18.63 d 4.06
121.6 ab 133.7 a 124.0 ab 119.6 bc 123.7 ab 114.7 bcd 107.2 bcd 120.7 ab 105.9 d 13.44
18.39 bc 21.17 a 18.71 bc 16.91 cd 19.73 ab 17.48 cd 16.14 d 18.35 bc 16.18 d 2.04
Means sharing the same letters within a column do not differ significantly from each other at p 0.05
Rice production systems had significant effects on grain and straw yield, harvest index and water use efficiency while non-significant effects on biological yield (Table 2). Both transplanted systems observed higher grain yield while direct seeding resulted in lowest grain yield. Direct seeding observed higher straw yield compared with transplanted rice. Peak harvest index was calculated in transplanted production systems against the minimum in direct seeding. Direct seeded rice resulted in higher water use efficiency compared with transplanted rice (Table 2).
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Table 2: Effect of different mulch systems on productivity and water use efficiency of rice grown under different rice production systems Treatments
Grain yield (kg ha-1)
Biological yield (kg ha-1)
Straw yield (kg ha-1)
Rice production systems (S) S1 = Transplanting continuous flooding 3941 a 11740 7800 b S2 = Transplanting 2 weeks flooding 3824 a 11850 8030 ab S3 = Direct seeding 3427 b 12460 9033 a LSD at p 0.05 146.2 NS 1153 Mulch systems (M) M1 = Control (No mulch) 3684 b 11790 8109 M2 = Plastic mulching 3870 a 12380 8509 M3 = Straw mulching 3637 b 11880 8246 LSD at p 0.05 162.3 NS NS Interactions 3905 ab 11670 bcd 7769 cde S1M1 S1M2 4047 a 12390 ab 8339 abcd S1M3 3872 ab 11160 d 7292 e 3849 bc 11350 cd 7497 de S2M1 S2M2 3944 ab 11890 abcd 7947 bcde 3679 cd 12330 abc 8647 abc S2M3 S3M1 3928 e 12360 ab 9060 a S3M2 3620 d 12860 a 9241 a 3361 e 12160 abcd 8798 ab S3M3 LSD at p 0.05 181.3 1012 997.5 Means sharing the same letters within a column do not differ significantly from each other at p 0.05 WUE = Water use efficiency
Harvest index (%)
WUE (kg m-3)
34.71 a 33.61 a 29.00 b 3.35
3.48 b 3.80 b 4.28 a 0.46
31.36 35.22 30.74 NS
3.07 3.23 3.03 NS
33.46 abcd 36.00 ab 34.68 ab 33.93 abc 37.00 a 29.89 bcd 26.70 d 32.67 abcd 27.65 cd 6.96
3.25 c 3.37 c 3.23 c 3.85 b 3.94 b 3.68 b 4.53 ab 4.91a 4.20 b 0.70
Different mulch systems had non-significant effects on productivity and water use efficiency except grain yield; which was the maximum in plastic mulching against the minimum in control and straw mulching (Table 2). Interactions among rice production and mulch systems had significant effects on grain, biological and straw yield, harvest index and water use efficiency. Maximum grain yield was observed in continuously flooded transplanted rice with straw mulching against the minimum in direct seeded rice with straw mulch and no mulch. Direct seeded rice with plastic mulching outperformed with peak biological yield while 2 weeks flooded transplanted rice with straw mulching observed minimum biological yield. Direct seeded rice with all mulch systems observed higher straw yield while lower straw yield was observed in 2 weeks flooded transplanted rice with straw mulching. Two weeks flooded transplanted rice with plastic mulching resulted in higher harvest index against the lower in direct seeding with bare ground. Direct seeded rice with plastic mulching resulted in higher water use efficiency while continuously flooded transplanted rice with straw mulching remained poor in this regard (Table 2). The results illustrated that transplanted rice with continuous flooding resulted in maximum grain yield along with entire yield components while higher water use efficiency was recorded in direct seeded rice though its grain yield was lower than transplanted rice. Similarly plastic mulching resulted in substantial improvement in yield, yield related attributes and water use efficiency in transplanted as well as direct seeded rice (Tables 1, 2). Improved yield related traits such as panicle length, number of grains per panicle and 1000-grain weight in continuously flooded transplanted rice is due to the water intensive nature of rice crop. Standing water in flooded rice at the time of grain filling resulted in lesser panicle sterility while in direct seeded rice panicle sterility was higher due to non-flooded conditions which severely hampered the yield related attributes thus causing severe decline in productivity. Higher grain yield and harvest index in transplanted rice is the direct result of improved yield related persona (Table 1) which contributed towards higher final grain yield while the poor performance of direct seeded rice in this regard is due to meager yield related traits (Table 1). Higher water use efficiency recorded in direct seeded rice is might possibly due to the reason that lesser number of irrigations was applied coupled with rd
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less evaporative losses (Bouman et al. 2007) in direct seeded rice compared with transplanted rice thus direct seeding efficiently utilized the applied water resulting in higher water use efficiency. Plastic mulching resulted in substantial improvement in productivity and water use efficiency of both transplanted and direct seeded rice. Plastic film might possibly reduce the evaporation losses and made the applied water available for longer period than bare ground which resulted in more water available for metabolic processes thus improving the productivity and water use efficiency of both rice production system compared with bare soil surface (Li et al. 2009). Feng (1999) has reported the same findings that different mulch systems improve the soil water retention thus improving WUE. Recently Li et al. (2009) has observed higher water harvest and crop productivity by plastic film mulching in maize crop. Reduced water use by 60% and 50% higher water use efficiency has been recorded in ground covered aerobic rice production systems in China (Lin et al. 2002). Moreover, plastic mulch also suppressed weeds which consume water more efficiently than crop plants thus making more water and nutrients available for crop plants ending with higher productivity and water use efficiency. Conclusion Direct seeded rice with bare ground resulted in lower productivity compared with transplanted rice however; higher water use efficiency was recorded in direct seeded rice. Different mulch systems; plastic mulching in particular substantially improved the productivity and water use efficiency of both transplanted and direct seeded rice. It is concluded that plastic film mulching can efficiently be utilized for improving the productivity and water use efficiency in both transplanted as well as direct seeded rice. References Atlin GN, Lafitte HR, Tao D, Laza M, Amante M and Courtois B (2006). Developing rice cultivars for high-fertility upland systems in the Asian tropics. Field Crops Research 97, 43-52. Bhushan L, Ladha JK, Gupta RK, Singh S, Tirol-Padre A, Saharawat YS, Gathala M and Pathak H (2007). Saving of water and labor in a rice–wheat system with no-tillage and direct seeding technologies. Agronomy Journal 99, 1288-1296. Bouman BAM, Humphreys E, Tuong TP and Barker R (2007). Rice and water. Advances in Agronomy 92, 187-237. Bouman BAM, Peng S, Castaneda AR and Visperas RM (2005). Yield and water use of irrigated tropical aerobic rice systems. Agricultural Water Management 74, 87-105. Cabangon RJ, Tuong TP and Abdullah NB (2002). Comparing water input and water productivity of transplanted and direct-seeded rice production systems. Agricultural Water Management 57, 11-31. Choudhury BU, Bouman BAM and Singh AK (2007). Yield and water productivity of rice–wheat on raised beds at New Delhi, India. Field Crops Research 100, 229-239. Farooq M, Basra SMA and Wahid A (2006). Priming of field-sown rice seed enhances germination, seedling establishment, allometry and yield. Plant Growth Regulation 49, 285-294. Govt. of Pakistan (2011). Agricultural statistics of Pakistan. 2010-11. Ministry of food and agriculture, economic wing, Islamabad, Pakistan, PP: 22. IWMI (International Water Management Institute) (2007). Comprehensive assessment of water management in agriculture. Water for food, water for life: A comprehensive assessment of water management in agriculture. London: Earthscan, and Colombo. Li MZ, Li F, Jin S and Song Y (2009). How two ridges and the furrow mulched with plastic film affect soil water, soil temperature and yield of maize on the semiarid Loess Plateau of China. Field Crops Research 113, 41-47. Li Y and Barker R (2004). Increasing water productivity for paddy irrigation in China. Paddy and Water Environment 2, 187-193.
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Lin S, Dittert K, Tao H, Kreye C, Xu Y, Shen Q, Fan X and Sattelmacher B. 2002. The ground-cover rice production system (GCRPS): a successful new approach to save water and increase nitrogen fertilizer efficiency. In: Bouman BAM, Hengsdijk H, Hardy B, Bindraban PS, Tuong TP, Ladha JK, editors. 2002. Water-wise rice production. Proceedings of the international workshop on waterwise rice production, 8-11 April, International Rice Research Institute, Los Baños, Philippines, pp, 1887-195. Liu XJ, Wang JC, Lu SH, Zhang FS, Zeng XZ, Ai YW, Peng SB and Christie P (2003). Effects of nonflooded mulching cultivation on crop yield, nutrient uptake and nutrient balance in rice–wheat cropping systems. Field Crops Research 83, 297-311. Peng SB, Bouman B, Visperas RM, Castaneda A, Nie LX and Park HK (2006). Comparison between aerobic and flooded rice in the tropics: agronomic performance in an eight-season experiment. Field Crops Research 96, 252-259. Qin J, Hu F, Zhang B, Wei Z and Li H (2006). Role of straw mulching in non-continuously flooded rice cultivation. Agricultural Water Management 83, 252-260. Rijsberman FR (2006). Water scarcity: fact or fiction? Agricultural Water Management 80, 5-22. Santhi P, Ponnuswamy K and Kempuchktty N (1998). A labour saving technique in direct sown and transplanted rice. International Rice Research Notes 23, 35. Singh S, Ladha JK, Gupta RK, Bhushan L, Rao AN, Sivaprasad B and Singh PP (2007). Evaluation of mulching, intercropping with sesbania and herbicide use for weed management in dry-seeded rice (Oryza sativa L.). Crop Protection 26, 518-524. Steel RGD, Torrie JH and Dicky DA (1997). Principles and Procedures of Statistics, A Biometrical Approach 3rd Ed. McGraw Hill Book Co. Inc., New York, USA. Tao H, Brueck H, Dittert K, Kreye C, Lin S and Sattelmacher B (2006). Growth and yield formation of rice (Oryza sativa L.) in the water-saving ground cover rice production system (GCRPS). Field Crops Research 95, 1-12. Thompson J (1999). Methods for increasing rice water use efficiency. In “Rice water use efficiency workshop proceedings”. Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Rice Production, Leeton, New South Wales, Australia, pp, 45-46. Vijayakumar M, Ramesh S, Chandrasekaran B and Thiyagarajan TM (2006). Effect of system of rice intensification (SRI) practices on yield attributes, yield and water productivity of rice (Oryza Sativa L.). Research Journal of Agriculture and Biological Sciences 2, 236-242. Xu GW, Zhang ZC, Zhang JH and Yang JC (2007). Much improved water use efficiency of rice under non-flooded mulching cultivation. Journal of Integrative Plant Biology 49: 1527-1534. Zhang Z, Zhang S, Yang J and Zhang J (2008). Yield, grain quality and water use efficiency of rice under non-flooded mulching cultivation. Field Crops Research 108, 71-81.
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