Main Field

• At the time of transplanting, a shallow depth of 2 cm of water is adequate.
• 2 cm of water depth has to be maintained up to seven days of transplanting.
• After the establishment stage, cycling submergence of water 5 cm has to be continued thorughtout the crop period .
• Critical stages of water requirement in rice are a) panicle initiation, b) booting, c) heading and d) flowering.
• Adequate drainage facilities has to be provided to drain excess water and last irrigation may be given 15 days ahead of harvest.

Precautions for Irrigation

• The field plot size can be 25 to 50 cents.
• Field to field irrigation should be avoided and field should be irrigated individually from a channel.
• Small bund may be formed parallel to the main bund of the field at a distance of 30 to 45 cm within the field to avoid leakages of water.
• Care should be taken not to allow development of cracks.

Alternate Wetting and Drying Irrigation (AWDI)

• Alternate Wetting and Drying Irrigation (AWDI) is used to monitor the depth of ponded water on the field by using Field Water Tube’ (FWT) which is made of 40 cm long plastic pipe with a diameter of 15 cm so that water table is easily visible.
• Tube is perforated with 0.5 cm diameter holes in the bottom and the top 15 cm portion is non-perforated.
• One Field Water Tube is required for adopting the AWDI in an area of 1 acre. The FWT is installed in the field using mallet and it is inserted upto the perforated portion buried inside the soil. The soil inside the tube is to be removed.

• FWT to be installed near the field levies so that the water level inside the FWT could be monitored easily.

Days after disappearance of ponded water at which irrigation is to be given