Effects of water-saving irrigation and groundwater depth on direct seeding rice growth, yield, and water use in a semi-arid region

In Iran, rice is grown in areas where the groundwater depth (GD) is low. Therefore, water-saving irrigation (WSI) can be used instead of continuous flood irrigation (CFI) in order to use the groundwater. The objectives of this study were to investigate the interaction effects of irrigation regimes and GDs on growth and yield of rice and groundwater contribution (GC) to crop evapotranspiration (ET) in cylindrical greenhouse lysimeters. Irrigation regimes were CFI and intermittent flood irrigation (IFI) with 4- and 8-day intervals (IFI-4 and IFI-8, respectively), and GDs were 0.3, 0.45, and 0.60m. Results indicated that in a climate condition similar to experimental environment in greenhouse, using IFI-4 at a GD of 0.3m produced grain yield and straw and root dry matter (DM) similar to those obtained when using CFI, with 53% reduction in irrigation water use. However, straw and root DM increased in CFI with increasing soil column length. Maximum GC/ET (41%) was observed when using IFI-4 at a GD of 0.3m. A multiple regression equation was presented to estimate GC/ET as a function of GD and soil moisture deficit (SMD). This equation indicates that at a given GD with extension of irrigation intervals and increased SMD GC/ET reached a maximum value followed by a decrease afterwards. Maximum values of GC/ET were obtained at SMD values of 0.47, 0.40, and 0.33 at GDs of 0.3, 0.45, and 0.6m, respectively.