Micro Irrigation in Rice: A Review

Rice (Oryza sativa) is the most important staple food crop over half of the world’s population and it provides 21 per cent of global human per capita energy. In India, rice is widely grown as the second food crop occupying about 43 million hectares of area. Water scarcity is a major constraint in the development of rice farming in some parts of the world. The water required to produce unit kg of rice is as high as 4000-5000 liters under conventional methods of water application (Transplanting under submerged conditions). During the crop growth period of rice, the amount of water usually applied to field is often much more than the actual field requirement because of adopting traditional flood irrigation methods. In order to meet the growing demand for water it is necessary to use water efficiently and reduce the loss of water. One such practice to conserve water is adoption of micro irrigation to a water loving crop like rice to reduce the wastage of water and to increase the water use efficiency. Micro irrigation is defined as the application of small quantities of water directly above and below the soil surface, usually as discrete drops, continuous drops or tiny streams through emitters placed along a water delivery line.