The Comparison of Water Balance Parameters in Traditional and Leveled Paddy Fields in Qaemshahr, Iran

آب و خاک

Article 21, Volume 26, Issue 4, September 2012, Pages 1010-1017   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/jsw.v0i0.15305

Authors

A. Shahnazari; Mirkhaleg Ziatabar Ahmadi^* ; ghassem aghajani mazandarani

Sari Agricultural and Natural Resources University

Abstract

Rice is the most important agricultural product in the world after wheat, and Iran has a special place in producing almost two million tones of rice per year. Considering the drought crisis and high consumption of water in paddy fields, it is useful to present strategies in order to increase irrigation efficiencies. In this respect, many paddy fields in Northern Province of Iran are Land Leveled. The effect of these fields on the Water Balance Parameters, water use efficiency and water productivity has been used in this study. This research has been carried out in Qaemshahr City, Mazandaran Province, comparing two traditional and leveled paddy fields measuring 1.9 and 5.67 hectares, respectively for early-ripening local Tarom species. The water discharge rates of input and output, with 3-inch Parshall Flumes were measured. Three lysimeters were tried in order to determine evapotranspiration and deep percolation. The results demonstrate that in traditional and leveled paddy fields, water use efficiencies turned to be 62.9 and 73%, water productivity of 0.476 and 0.575 kilogram per square meter, evapotranspiration of 468.2 and 477.5 mm, and deep percolation of 196.3 and 147.8 mm, respectively. Also, 25% reduction of deep percolation parameter was observed in land leveled condition which was due to hard pan creation and can be known as the most important factor of 10% increase in irrigation efficiency.

Keywords

Rice; Leveled Paddy Fields; Water use efficiency; Water Productivity; Deep Percolation