PADDY CULTIVATION
1 Introduction
1 Introduction
The present note describes, at an introductory level, some water resources implications of paddy
cultivation, in a Southeast Asian context.
The note draws heavily on Harry Nesbitt (July 2003): Water used for agriculture in the Lower
Mekong Basin, report prepared for Mekong River Commission, Basin Development Plan.
Another example of an important publication is L. C. Guerra, S. I. Bhuiyan, T. P. Tuong, and R.
Barker (1998): Producing more rice with less water from irrigated systems, SWIM paper 5,
IWMI, Colombo.
For further reading, reference is made to the Internet.
Please note that (in most cases), numbers in this note are examples only. Many numbers - be it crop water
requirement, yield, percolation, return flow or whatever - are highly site-specific, and would be different from one
place, one year and one cultivation technique to another place, another year, and another cultivation technique.
2
2 Basics
It is no coincidence that paddy cultivation is the main traditional livelihood in Southeast Asia.
Rice is a unique crop in many ways, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Valuable properties of rice 8
Traditional Southeast-Asian cultivation systems comprise:
• Upland (or aerobic) rice, grown in dry fields;
• lowland (wet) (rainfed or irrigated) rice, grown in fields that are inundated for the major
part of the cultivation period. Lowland rice can be transplanted or direct seeded; and
• deepwater/floating rice, growing in water depths between 0.5 m and 4-5 m.
Among these, lowland rice is by far the most important in terms of production and occupation.
Table 2: Transplanted rice 9
Lowland rice does not grow well in stagnant water. Either, a slow flow must be maintained, or
the field must be drained and re-flooded at intervals. This generates a return flow of excess
water, of the same magnitude as the crop water requirement.
8 H Nesbitt (July 2003) and MRC-BDP (Nov 2002)
9 After H Nesbitt (July 2003)
• Rice is the traditional stable food in Southeast Asia, and can assure food security (at the family level, as
well as at the national level)
• Agriculture, and mainly paddy cultivation and related occupations, provides the livelihood for some 75
percent of the people living in the Lower Mekong Basin
• Rice can grow on soil types that are not well suited for other crops
• Rice can grow in areas that are waterlogged or inundated
• Rice can be stored for years
• The commercial demand of rice is relatively stable (but prices are low)
• Rice is relatively robust towards pests, and lowland rice is very robust towards weeds
• One crop of rice can be raised in 3-4 months, well within the period of the monsoon rainfall
Rice can be transplanted or direct seeded (or broadcast)
Transplanted rice gives a higher yield, and a somewhat better control of the cultivation cycle (relative to the rainfall),
because the transplanting can be postponed by some weeks, if need be.
In return, the maturation period is 5-7 days longer than for direct seeded rice - and the risk of faulty weather is
related to the length of the cultivation period.
Transplanting is labour-intensive (around 10 person-days per hectare, or more)
3
Regarding the water supply, there is a broad scale between fully irrigated and fully rainfed
crops. In most cases, irrigated crops are partly rainfed. Supplementary irrigation (for example
during the onset of the wet season) can be important for orderly cultivation, whereby it can
represent a high added value per m3 of water used.
Irrigation can comprise a variety of operations, alone or in a combination:
• Storage of water in a reservoir;
• pumping (large-scale or small-scale) (from a river, lake, canal or reservoir);
• diversion of water from a river, by a control structure (weir), into a network of canals;
• retention of surface runoff (towards the end of the wet season), by dams, canals and
gates; and
• retention of return flows from upstream paddy fields, by canals and gates.
Groundwater irrigation is hardly economically feasible for paddy cultivation, due to high
operation costs and low value produced. To some extent, however, the same can be said about
surface water irrigation, unless weather conditions and the topography are favourable.
Operation of irrigation schemes can be complex, and sometimes very much so. Good operation
is supported by thorough professional insight, access to historical data, real-time data and
reliable forecasts.
Figure 1: Example of a diversion scheme: The Chiang Rai Weir, North Thailand 10
10 MRC and OEPP (Oct 2000)
4
Figure 2: Example of a retention scheme, typical for the flood plains of Cambodia 11
11 Strongly simplified diagramme, illustrating the 800 ha Chruy Chek irrigation scheme, Trean commune,
Kompong Siem district, Kampong Cham province, Cambodia (visited in May and December 2004)
End of the dry season
(April-May)
Peak of the flood season
(September) - the entire
active flood plain is flooded
One crop of paddy is
cultivated from
October/November to
January/March
Higher ground
Active floodplain
(dry at this time of year)
Dam
Mekong
river
5
Typical processing operations are shown in Figure 3. After an allocation (of around 1 percent)
for seeds, post-harvest losses (including drying) and milling, 1 kg paddy leaves 0.5 - 0.6 kg
milled rice. (So it is important to distinguish between paddy and milled rice!) An example is
shown in Table 3 below.
Figure 3: Rice processing
Table 3: Rice production and food balance (example, Cambodia 2000-2001) 12
Total paddy production 4,026,000 t 100 percent
Seed and post-harvest losses 684,000 t 17 percent
Balance: Paddy available 3,342,000 t 83 percent
Milled rice available 2,072,000 t 51 percent
Population, persons 13,100,000 persons
Total rice requirement, at 151 kg/person/year 1,981,000 t
Surplus rice production 91,000 t
12 CNMC-BDP (Aug 2003)
Threshing, winnowing
Brown rice
Husk (20-30 percent)
Milling
White (or milled) rice (whole and broken)
Seeds, post-harvest losses
Bran, polish (around 10 percent)
Harvesting
Paddy
6
3 Water utilization
Water balance
A basic water balance is shown below for paddy irrigation based on surface water.
Figure 4: Water balance for paddy cultivation
Due to the losses, the irrigation demand is much higher than the crop water requirement. It is
seen, however, that much of the water that is 'lost' goes to groundwater recharge or can be used
for other purposes downstream.
Both the crop water requirement and the rainfall depend on the location. The crop water
requirement varies during the cultivation period, and the rainfall varies with an annual cycle.
Therefore, the water balance is made on a monthly or daily basis for the entire cultivation
period. A suitable basic unit is mm/day.
The crop water requirement can be determined by experiments at agricultural field stations, or it
can be calculated from a reference evapotranspiration by a method available on FAO's website.
For over-all water resources management purposes it is convenient to know the irrigation
demand for an entire crop, expressed in mm/crop or m3/crop/ha. Obviously, this value depends
on the time, place and duration of the actual cultivation period, and it will highly depend on how
much of the crop requirement that is served by irrigation and how much by rainfall.
Water lost in the canals
(or conveyance losses)
(evaporation, seepage, etc).
Irrigation demand (or withdrawal demand):
Water withdrawn for irrigation from a river or a reservoir
Rainfall
Crop water requirement: The water needed for the crop to grow
Water supplied to the field
Water lost in the field
(or field application losses)
Return flows from the field
(can be used downstream)
7
Water efficiencies
The scheme efficiency is the over-all ratio between the water needed by the crop and the water
that needs to be withdrawn for irrigated cultivation 13. Scheme efficiencies are often low in
places where water is by tradition abundantly available.
The conveyance efficiency (the extent to which the water reaches its destination) depends on
whether the canal is lined, and on the canal length and soil type. Also, the state of maintenance
is important.
The field application efficiency for irrigated paddy cultivation depends on the system layout, the
management of the system, and the skills and coordination between the farmers.
Table 4: Examples of efficiencies
Conveyance efficiency 14,
lined canals
earthen canals Ec
95
60-90
%
%
Field application efficiency, paddy 15 Ea 60-65 %
Scheme (or over-all) efficiency (paddy) 16 Ec * Ea 30 %
Return flow (paddy) (in % of irrigation demand) 17 30 %
Please note that these figures are examples only!
Irrigation demand and crop requirement
In an example from Thailand, the crop requirement was determined to 3.6 and 5.0 mm/day for
rainfed and irrigated rice, respectively 18. Assuming a 120 days cultivation period, this equals
4,300 - 6,100 m3/crop/ha.
13 The efficiency is the part of the water that is used for its intended purpose. If a scheme efficiency is 30 % it
means that 30 % of the water is used by the crops, while 70 % is lost on the way to the crops or are
subsequently released as return flows
14 Drainage and Irrigation Department, Penang, Malaysia (website read October 2004):
http://agrolink.moa.my/did/didpenang/pengairan/irr_eff.htm
15 (same)
16 Nesbitt (July 2003) Table 11, quoting FAOSTAT data for Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Viet Nam. The
same value was used in MRC and OEPP (Oct 2000)
17 MRC and OEPP (Oct 2000)
18 Panya Polsan et. al (July 2004)
8
Table 5: Consumptive water use in traditional (wet) rice systems
Land preparation 150 - 250 mm/crop Restoring soil moisture,
ploughing and puddling
Evapotranspiration 500 - 1200
4 - 10
mm/crop
mm/day
Crop requirement
Seepage and percolation 200 -700
2 - 6
mm/crop
mm/day
Maintaining water pounding
Mid-season drainage 50 - 100 mm/crop Refilling after drainage
Total
Average over a 120 days
cultivation period
900 - 2250
7.5 - 20
mm/crop
mm/day
Total water utilization
from rainfall + irrigation,
excluding return flows
Source: FAO (2004a)
In comparison, the following figures are from Royal Irrigation Department in Thailand 19:
Crop requirement, dry season rice: 6-7 mm/day
Percolation (depending on soil type): 1-3 mm/day
Total (crop requirement + percolation): 8-10 mm/day
According to the figures in Table 6 (which are more or less typical for Southeast Asia), it is
required to withdraw around 3.3 m3 of water for each m3 needed by the crops - in the absence
of rainfall:
Table 6: Irrigation demand and crop water requirement
Irrigation demand (withdrawal from river or reservoir): 100 percent
Available to serve the crop water requirement: 30 percent
Return flows: 30 percent
Various losses: 40 percent
Water used per kg rice
As shown by the following examples, it requires a lot of water to produce rice - in particular
where the traditional cultivation systems are based on abundance of water. As a rule of thumb, it
requires 5 m3 of water to produce 1 kg of rice.
For a given crop at a given time and place, the yield depends on many factors, including the
continuous water supply, the crop variety, weed management, and the use of fertilizer. Within
limits, each kilogram of nitrogen fertilizer can produce 10–15 kg more rice 20. Assume a specific
crop water requirement of (for example) around 4 m3/kg paddy (Table 7). If so, 1 kg of fertilizer
can replace 40-60 m3 of water.
19 Osot Charnvej (Oct 1999)
20 Guerra, Bhuiyan, Tuong and Barker (1998)
9
In the Mekong Delta, the irrigation demand (for fully irrigated paddy) has
been reported at 1 l/s/ha21 or 8.6 mm/day.
The yield of (dry season) rice is 5.0 t/ha 22. Assuming a 120 days cultivation
period, this is 2.1 m3 of water per kg dry season paddy rice.
Assuming post-harvest losses of 10 percent and a milling rate of 65 percent,
this becomes 3.5 m3 of water per kg milled rice.
In Northeast Thailand, the irrigation demand (for fully irrigated paddy) has
been reported at 12,000 m3/ha/crop 23 (or 1,200 mm/crop or 10 mm/day).
The yield of (dry season) rice is 3.3 t/ha24. This is 3.6 m3 of water per kg dry
season paddy rice.
Assuming post-harvest losses of 10 percent and a milling rate of 65 percent,
this becomes 6.2 m3 of water per kg milled rice.
Table7: Specific crop water requirements
(Example, Thailand 1999) 25
Banana 970 m3/ton
Groundnut 1880 m3/ton
Maize 780 m3/ton
Soybean 3050 m3/ton
Sugarcane 200 m3/ton
Watermelon 270 m3/ton
Onion (dry) 490 m3/ton
Rice 4050 m3/ton
Note: Various irrigation losses not included
Post-harvest losses are not included
Record yields - 'China cultivates record high-yield super rice'
Chinese agronomists have cultivated a new species of 'super rice,' the Super Rice II YOU 28, with
average yield reaching a record high of 18,400 kilograms per hectare.
The figure broke the records set in 2004 of 18,300 kilograms per hectare, setting a new world record,
said Shi Changjun, leader of the super rice acceptance test.
Experts from the China Rice Research Institute, Yunnan Agricultural University and the Yunnan
Provincial Academy of Agriculture conducted on-the-spot acceptance check over harvest of the super
rice.
The new species of high-yield hybrid rice was sown in March, planted in May and harvested on
September 10 in Taoyuan Village, Yongsheng County of south China's Yunnan Province, with fertility
period lasting 192 days.
Source: Xinhua, quoting People's Daily Online, September 12, 2005
21 Nesbitt (July 2003) p. 33
22 MRC-BDP (Nov 2002) p. 18, 1999 data from Viet Nam General Statistical Office
23 Nesbitt (July 2003) p. 33
24 MRC-BDP (Nov 2002) p. 17, 2001 data from Thailand National Statistics Office
25 Hoekstra and Hung (2002), Appendix III, pp. 3, 6, 9, 12
10
Demand satisfaction
Demand satisfaction is a measure to illustrate the amount of water needed for serving the full
demand.
The following figure is an example from Kok River Basin in North Thailand. The wet season is
from May to October, with the highest rainfall in July and August. Surprisingly, at the first
glance, the month with the lowest demand satisfaction is July, in the middle of the wet season
(where water is required for land preparation for the main rice crop, which will be harvested in
November).
In this area, the irrigation demand is higher in the wet season than in the dry season, because the
crop intensity is low in the dry season - the farmers cultivate their land in harmony with the
water availability. When asked, they will reply that they don't need irrigation water in the dry
season, because they don't cultivate their fields in that part of the year.
Figure 5: Demand satisfaction (example from Kok River Basin, North Thailand) 26
Water quality
Like other water-dependent production systems, paddy cultivation requires a certain quality
standard of the consumed water on the one hand, and represents a certain environmental
pressure on the other.
Production systems based on paddy cultivation in combination with paddy field fisheries can be
economically attractive - the income from the fish can exceed the income from the cultivation -
but require water that is uncontaminated to a standard where fish can survive.
Example from Thailand (2003 figures) 27
Import of fertilizers: 3,840,000 tonnes/year
Import of pesticides: 50,331 tonnes /year
(These figures relate to the entire agricultural sector of Thailand, which
comprises a variety of crops other than rice)
26 MRC and OEPP (Oct 2000)
27 Thailand National Economic and Social Development Board, quoted in Bangkok Post 14 November 2004, p.
3
70
80
90
100
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan
PerCent
0
10
20
30
Abstraction (m3/s)
Satisfaction
Abstraction
11
If the irrigation tailwater carry 'hard' pollutants (like bio-accumulating and slowly decaying
pesticide residuals), the consequences to the fisheries sector and the public health can be severe.
Paddy cultivation in itself is robust to pesticide residues in the irrigation water, but is sensitive
to salinity, which is a problem in downstream areas of the river basin that are exposed to sea
water intrusion.
12
4 Water resources management
General
A fruitful distinction can be made between
• basin level management, for a river basin or sub-basin; and
• scheme level management (or system level management), for a single irrigation scheme.
These two levels differ widely in terms of agenda, management options, and needs of
knowledge and data.
Also, the water balances are different at the two levels. At the basin level, percolation losses and
return flows at the scheme level are (typically) not 'losses' but rather 're-allocations'.
• The third level of management, the farm level, is not covered by this lecture note.
Basin level management
The purpose of water resources management at the basin level is to establish and maintain some
harmony between (1) the over-all water availability and (2) the potential demand of water.
This exercise must be carried out in time and space. That there is enough water on the average is
of little practical interest. In the Lower Mekong Basin, the average water availability is 19
m3/person/day, or 7,100 m3/person/year 28, but still, there are severe seasonal water shortages -
and a strong need of water resources management.
For a given area, the availability is largely determined by the rainfall (and by large-scale storage
facilities), while the demand is determined by the crops, the cultivation routines, and the applied
technology. The availability and the demand are linked by prevailing, traditional production
system modalities, but are otherwise largely unrelated.
The irrigation demand may be the largest item in the budget in terms of volume, but not in terms
of significance. The domestic demand is much smaller in terms of volume, but much higher in
terms of significance. In terms of value generated, paddy irrigation comes low on a long list of
industrial and agricultural water uses.
A balance must be maintained between consumptive (or 'off-stream') water uses and nonconsumptive
(or 'in-stream' water uses). The former comprise domestic, industrial and
agricultural demands. The latter represent the needs of the fisheries and navigation sectors, as
well as the ecological demand of water (to maintain a desired state of aquatic and floodplain
ecosystems and other wetlands). Hydropower reservoirs fall somewhat in between, but are
important, as they can re-distribute the water availability over the year.
In some rivers, for example the Mekong, the lower parts are only slightly elevated above sea
level, and with no control structures to keep the saline sea water out. If so, a certain minimum
flow must be maintained to prevent saline intrusion.
28 MRC (July 2003)
13
For planning purposes and feasibility analyses, knowledge is required about the over-all,
'reliable' water availability (which can for example be 'the water available in 4 out of 5 years').
At the basin level, the return flows are not really losses - quite often, they can be used further
downstream in the basin, at a later time. Similarly, percolation is regarded as groundwater
recharge, rather than a loss. Still, these flows must be taken into account, since they need to be
removed from the river or the reservoir in the first place.
Figure 6: Example of water management infrastructure involving reservoirs and diversions.
Kok River Basin, North Thailand 29 30
29 MRC and OEPP (Oct 2000)
30 1 rai = 1600 m2
14
Figure 7: Satellite view of Tonle Sap (Cambodia) and the Mekong Delta
The Vietnamese part of the Mekong Delta produces 50% of the
national rice yield and 90% of the exported value 31.
48 % of the area is irrigated. The hydraulic infrastructure is
comprehensive and complex, providing irrigation water, flood
protection, and salinity control.
The low-lying Delta is exposed to intrusion of saline sea water,
and a certain minimum flow is required to maintain the
freshwater regime 32. The required minimum flow is not much
less than the annual monthly minimum flow of around 1,630
m3/s (or 2.1 l/s/km2 catchment area) 33.
Knowledge about the water availability is much more accessible and much more accurate than
knowledge about the future, potential demand, which can vary within a broad range, depending
on crops and cultivation techniques.
Water management at the basin level is not always based on win-win-solutions. Development
initiatives that benefit some people in some areas can have adverse consequences to other
people living in adjacent areas. Many irrigation schemes with an undisputed over-all positive
'bottom line' can deprive some people of land and/or water.
Scheme level management
The purpose of scheme level management is to serve the crop water requirement.
Scheme level management requires
• real-time information about storage volumes and/or river stages and/or flow rates;
• good forecasts of rainfall and river stage over as long a period of time as possible;
• knowledge about normal rainfall and stage, and typical variation intervals, as a function
of time; and
• knowledge about optimal and critical crop requirements.
In some places, scheme level management can also comprise operational protection against
floods, or operational protection against salt water intrusion, by means of control gates or flow
regulation.
An important feature of scheme level management is the coordination among the water users.
This must take place either in a close dialogue, or by the water users themselves (depending on
31 Data from 2000, VNMC (May 2003), p. 8
32 Nedeco (Feb 1993)
33 January 1964 - May 1974, data published in the Lower Mekong Hydrologic Yearbooks
15
the complexity of the scheme, its size, and other circumstances). In any case, the skills of the
water users, and the collaboration between them, are crucial to successful management.
Criteria for successful scheme level management are :
1 Adequate basic technical and financial feasibility ('sustainability') of the enterprise. A
scheme must be practical and profitable, otherwise it will fail - no matter how well it is
managed;
2 roles understood and accepted by everyone involved. This requires in turn (i) that the
roles are well-defined and transparent, and (ii) that the enterprise is supported by the
stakeholders;
3 an adequate information flow - managerial, technical and financial - between the
involved parties, so that good and timely decisions can be made; and
4 adequate managerial skills available as required with each decision-making body. This
can be supported (i) by training; and (ii) by avoiding overly complicated management
routines.
As a matter of curiosity, it can be noted that paddy cultivation is seldom financially sustainable,
if depreciation of construction costs are taken into account, due to the marginal added value.
A life-long education process of everybody involved can highly support a sustainable scheme
level management.
16
5 The development agenda
Technological aspects
Scientific research related to rice cultivation is carried out by International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI), International Water Management Institute (IWMI), and many other
international and national research centres and programmes. FAO maintains a major knowledge
base and develops tools for agricultural management and related water resources management.
Please refer to the Internet for (much) more information.
Current research comprises issues such as 34
• higher yield (tons per ha)
• increased water efficiency (tons per m3)
• increased nutrient efficiency (tons per ton fertilizer used)
• improved drought tolerance
• integrated pest management
Golden rice 35
Recent breakthroughs in scientific technology have made it possible to enhance the nutritional value of
rice through modifying the genetic code.
The best-known example of this technology is 'golden rice', which contains carotenoids (precursors to
vitamin A) from daffodil genes.
Yield gaps 36
The yield gap is the (often significant) difference between an actual and a potential yield. A distinction
can be made between (1) the gap between the potential theoretical yield and the experiment station
yield; (2) the gap between the experiment station yield and the potential farm yield; and (3) the gap
between the potential and the actual farm yield.
Factors causing yield gaps include
1. Biophysical: climate/weather, soils, water, pest pressure, weeds.
2. Technical/management: tillage, variety/seed selection, water, nutrients, weeds, pests, and postharvest
management.
3. Socio-economic: socio-economic status, farmer’s traditions and knowledge, family size, household
income/expenses/investment.
4. Institutional/policy: government policy, rice prices, credit, input supply, land tenure, market,
research, development, extension.
5. Technology transfer and linkages: the competence and facilities of extension staff; integration
among research, development and extension; farmers’ resistance to new technology; knowledge
and skills; weak linkages among public, private and non-governmental extension staffs.
34 Cantrell and Hettel (2004)
35 FAO (2003b)
36 FAO (2003c)
17
Social and economic aspects
In Southeast Asia, paddy cultivation is of decisive importance in terms of employment and food
security. It is not a very profitable livelihood, however:
• In NE Thailand (1996/97), the net profit of paddy cultivation was estimated from minus
49 to plus 21 USD/ha/crop for irrigated HYV rice in the wet and dry season,
respectively, and at minus 44 USD/ha/crop for the traditional wet season rainfed local
variety rice (family labour valued at 2.5 USD/day). 37
• In Cambodia, the net profit of paddy cultivation was estimated at 2 USD/ha/crop for
rainfed wet season rice and 2 USD/ha/crop for irrigated dry season rice (family labour
valued at 1 USD/day). 38
Example from Thailand 39
The average income of people in the farm sector (2002) was two times lower than in non-farm sectors,
and 3.8 times lower than the income of skilled labour workers. Most of the 6.2 million people living
below the poverty line were in the farm sector.
Slow progress [towards sustainable agriculture] was attributed to lack of land ownership documents,
lack of water, lack of labour, lack of investment, and debt.
Farmers themselves also lacked the 'inspiration', patience and diligence to succeed.
A farmer who wants to shift from paddy to other crops faces various obstacles, including the
following:
• Whether the soil is suited for other crops;
• new needs of capital, technology and knowledge (and hereby, perhaps, new dependencies
on suppliers);
• whether the alternative crops require more fertilizer and more pesticides (and hereby
additional expenses, occupational safety risks, and pollution that can impede local
fisheries and cause other harm);
• unfamiliar (and possibly risky) distribution and marketing systems (and hereby, perhaps,
new dependencies on buyers); and
• social risks in general - illness in the family, natural disasters - and how to cover them.
Between them, these obstacles can point towards contract farming, with its variety of pros and
cons. Also, the obstacles can point towards land ownership concentration.
37 Harry Nesbitt (July 2003)
38 MAFF (September 2002)
39 Thailand National Economic and Social Development Board, quoted in Bangkok Post 14 November 2004, p.
3
18
Management aspects
At the basin level, water-related management can be supported by developments towards:
• Supportive water allocation within the basin, and, possibly, among basins (subject to
careful analysis of benefits and side effects);
• coordinated operational flow management of retention, release, and diversion of water,
using existing or new infrastructure;
• coordinated, basin-level flood and drought preparedness, including forecast services and
contingency planning;
• coordinated hydropower development in a multi-disciplinary perspective (subject to
careful analysis of benefits and side effects);
• salinity control measures (that can reduce the required minimum flow while protecting
downstream irrigation systems and ecosystems) (subject to careful analysis of benefits
and side effects);
• coordinated, basin-level groundwater management (mapping, protection, regulation,
monitoring) (to prevent contamination and assure prudent utilization);
• coordinated, basin-level morphological management (to protect infrastructure, waterways
and ecosystems);
• awareness of the proper use of fertilizers and pesticides, with supportive regulation;
• coordinated management of wetlands and headwater areas;
• support in many ways to a partial crop diversification, combining paddy with other crops
(and/or livestock and/or fish cultivation) (for example learning from experience achieved
in Thailand, Viet Nam and elsewhere);
• support in many ways to enhancing the water efficiency and the economic efficiency of
the primary production (involving extension services and bridging institutions);
• support in many ways to enhancing the added value of the primary production (within
post-processing, distribution and marketing); and
• networking and knowledge-sharing among river basin organizations.
At the scheme level, water-related management of paddy cultivation can be supported by
development comprising:
• Making operational data and information readily available;
• scheme-level flood and drought preparedness and contingency planning;
• networking and knowledge-sharing between scheme operators and water users;
• credit facilities for investment and disaster mitigation; and
• awareness of technological opportunities within crops, cultivation routines, water
management and soil management.
The over-all water efficiency and the economic efficiency of water utilization can be enhanced
by general measures such as
• Supportive land ownership structure;
19
• de-centralization of ownership and decision-making, as practical from case to case
(considering the size of the scheme; its technological complexity; water sharing with
other schemes; and various other site-specific circumstances);
• scientific research, international networking, bridging institutions and extension services;
• broad capacity-building; and
• holistic development of farming, post-processing, distribution and marketing (for
example learning from experience achieved in Thailand and elsewhere).
Social risk management is an important companion to water management. Without one, the
other can fail, or initial achievements can eventually become undermined. This can happen if
intended beneficiaries of an irrigation development lose their land due to floods, drought, crop
or livestock diseases, illness in the family, market failure, or other social shocks.
CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research)
Three CGIAR research centers focus on rice research: (i) The International Rice Research Institute
(IRRI) in the Philippines; (ii) the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA) in Cote d'Ivoire;
and (iii) the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) in Colombia.
IRRI operates an award winning website dedicated to rice called the Rice Web (http://www.riceweb.org).
This is a compendium of facts and figures from the world of rice.
The three research centers collaborate to improve yield potential , to develop hybrid rice for the tropics,
to improve nitrogen use efficiency in rainfed systems, and to combat pests, diseases, and weeds.
Source: http://www.cgiar.org/impact/research/rice.html
20
References and literature
Cantrell, Ronald P. and Gene P. Hettel (2004): New challenges and technological opportunties for ricebased
production systems for food security and poverty alleviation in Asia and the Pacific. FAO
Rice Conference, Rome, Italy, February 2004
CNMC-BDP (Aug 2003): Basin Development Plan Programme: Integrated water resources management
in Cambodia, national sector review. Cambodia National Mekong Committee, Phnom Penh
Osot Charnvej (October 1999): Irrigation water saving for rice production. Symposium on irrigation
water saving for paddy rice, People's Republic of China
FAO (2004a): Rice and water - a long and diversified story. Fact sheet no. 1, http://www.rice2004.org
FAO (2004b): Rice and human nutrition. Fact sheet no. 3, http://www.rice2004.org
FAO (2004c): Rice and narrowing the yield gap. Fact sheet no. 5, http://www.rice2004.org
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utilization and availability. Paper presented at the Regional Consultation on Modern
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funded by ADB (TA 3695-CAM). Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery, Cambodia
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paper 32, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Sri Lanka.
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21
Appendix A: Statistics
Top producers (2003/04 data from US Department of Agriculture)
1 China 118,000,000 t
2 India 89,000,000 t
3 Indonesia 33,300,000 t
4 Bangladesh 26,000,000 t
5 Vietnam 21,000,000 t
6 Thailand 17,800,000 t
7 Burma 10,440,000 t
8 Philippines 8,500,000 t
9 Brazil 7,300,000 t
10 Japan 7,100,000 t
Top producers per capita (2003/04 data from US Department of Agriculture)
1 Thailand 277 kg/person
2 Vietnam 257 kg/person
3 Burma 246 kg/person
4 Bangladesh 188 kg/person
5 Indonesia 142 kg/person
6 Philippines 100 kg/person
7 South Korea 93 kg/person
8 China 92 kg/person
9 India 85 kg/person
10 Japan 56 kg/person
Top exporters (2003/04 data from US Department of Agriculture)
1 Thailand 8,000,000 t
2 Vietnam 4,000,000 t
3 India 3,000,000 t
4 United States 2,900,000 t
5 China 2,500,000 t
6 Pakistan 1,600,000 t
7 Uruguay 750,000 t
8 Egypt 700,000 t
9 Burma 500,000 t
22
Appendix B: Economy of paddy farming (example)
The farmers income and expenses Adverse Favourable
USD/ha/crop USD/ha/crop
(1) Sale of 3-5 t/ha/crop at 350-400 riel/kg paddy (0.09-0.10 USD/kg) 262.50 500.00
(2) Seeds, 20-40 kg/ha/crop at 0.2 USD/kg 4.00 8.00
(3) External labour, planting, 10 persons for 1 day/ha
at 4500 riel/person/day
11.25 11.25
(4) External labour, harvesting, 5 persons for 1 day/ha
at 4500 riel/person/day
5.63 5.63
(5) Fertiliser, 100-300 kg/ha/crop at 0.4 USD/kg 40.00 120.00
(6) Pesticides, 3 times per crop, total 4 USD/ha/crop 4.00 4.00
(7) Water fee, 50 kg paddy/ha/crop 4.38 5.00
(8) Balance before own labour = (1)-(2)-(3)-(4)-(5)-(6)-(7) 193.25 346.13
(9) Own labour, 120 days/crop at 1 USD/day for 1-2 ha 120.00 60.00
(10) Balance after own labour = (8) - (9) 73.25 286.13
Additional costs for groundwater irrigation by diesel pumps
(11) Depreciation of well & pump, 500 USD over 10 crops for 3-4 ha 16.67 12.50
(12) Diesel, 90 days at 10 l/day at 0.5 USD/l for 3-4 ha 150.00 112.50
(13) Water fee saved = - (7) -4.38 -5.00
(14) Total additional costs = (11) + (12) + (13) 162.29 120.00
(15) Balance after own labour and irrigation costs = (10) - (14) -89.04 166.13
Notes:
1 USD = 4000 riel
Data: 7 March Irrigation Scheme, Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia (October 2004)
This budget is made in the farmer's perspective, selling unmilled paddy at the farmgate
(and with site-specific weather, soil conditions, crop varieties and cultivation routines)
To arrive at a 'true' economic budget, value generated downstream must be added, and price regulation
(subsidies and taxes) removed
The 'favourable' budget assumes high yield and high use of fertiliser
The 'adverse' budget assumes low yield and low use of fertiliser
Typical farm size in this area is 1 ha (but some are several times bigger)
1 kg rice (ordinary quality) cost 1400-1600 riel (0.35 - 0.40 USD) in the markets in Phnom Penh (October
2004)
Please refer to MAFF (September 2002) for an in-depth analysis of the economy of paddy farming in
Cambodia
23
Appendix C: The System for Rice Intensification (SRI) 40
The SRI methodology was developed in the early 1980s by a Jesuit priest, Farther Henri de Laulanié, who
came to Madagascar from France in 1961 and spent the next (and last) 34 years of his life working with
farmers to improve their agricultural systems.
As compared with traditional paddy cultivation systems, SRI can potentially provide a much higher yield
while saving around 50 percent of water, both with traditional and new rice varieties, but with a higher
input of labour. SRI has been implemented or tried in many countries, from case to case with positive,
inconclusive or negative results.
SRI involves management of:
Rice plants: Seedlings are transplanted:
very young - usually just 8-12 days old, with just two small leaves
carefully and quickly to have minimum trauma to the roots
singly, only one per hill instead of 3-4 together to avoid root competition
widely spaced to encourage greater root and canopy growth
in a square grid pattern, 25x25 cm or wider - 30x30 cm or 40x40 cm, even up to 50x50 cm with
the best quality soil
Soil: This is kept moist but well-drained and aerated, with good structure and enough organic matter to
support increased biological activity. The quality and health of the soil is the key to best production.
Water: Only a minimum of water is applied during the vegetative growth period, and then only a thin
layer of water is maintained on the field during the flowering and grain filling stage. Alternatively, to save
labour time, some farmers flood and drain (dry) their fields in 3-5 day cycles with good results. Best
water management practices depend on soil type, labour availability and other factors, so farmers should
experiment on how best to apply the principle of having moist but well-drained soil while thier rice plants
are growing.
Nutrients: Soil nutrient supplies should be augmented, preferably with compost, made from any available
biomass. Better quality compost such as with manure can give additional yield advantages. Chemical
fertilizer can be used and gives better results than with no nutrient amendments, but it contributes less to
good soil structure and active microbial communities in the rhizosphere than does organic matter. At least
initially, nutrient amendments may not be necessary to achieve higher yields with the other SRI practices,
but it is desirable to build up soil fertility over time. Rice-root exudation, greater with SRI, enhances soil
fertility.
Weeds: Since weeds become a problem in fields that are not kept flooded, weeding is necessary at least
once or twice, starting 10-12 days after transplanting, and preferably 3 or 4 times before the canopy
closes. Using a rotary hoe -- a simple, inexpensive, mechanical push-weeder has the advantage of aerating
the soil at the same time that weeds are eliminated. (They are left in the soil to decompose so their
nutrients are not lost.) Additional weedings beyond two increase yield more than enough under most
conditions to justify the added labour costs.
40 Source: The SRI section of Cornell Universty's website: http://ciifad.cornell.edu/sri/index.html
24
Appendix D 41:
Means for saving water and increasing the productivity of water
Increasing the productivity per unit of water consumed
• Changing crop varieties to new crop varieties that can provide increased yields for each unit of
water consumed, or the same yields with fewer units of water consumed.
• Crop substitution by switching from high- to less-water-consuming crops, or switching to crops
with higher economic or physical productivity per unit of water consumed.
• Deficit, supplemental, or precision irrigation. With sufficient water control, higher productivity
can be achieved using irrigation strategies that increase the returns per unit of water consumed.
• Improved water management to provide better timing of supplies to reduce stress at critical crop
growth stages leading to increased yields or by increasing water supply reliability so that farmers
invest more in other agricultural inputs leading to higher output per unit of water.
• Optimizing non-water inputs. In association with irrigation strategies that increase the yield per
unit of water consumed, agronomic practices such as land preparation and fertilization can
increase the return per unit of water.
Reducing non-beneficial depletion
• Lessening of non-beneficial evaporation - by reducing:
* evaporation from water applied to irrigated fields through specific irrigation technologies
such as drip irrigation, or agronomic practices such as mulching, or changing crop planting
dates to match periods of less-evaporative demand.
* evaporation from fallow land, decreasing the area of free water surfaces, decreasing non- or
less-beneficial vegetation and controlling weeds.
• Reducing water flows to sinks - by interventions that reduce irrecoverable deep percolation and
surface runoff.
• Minimizing salinization of return flows - by minimizing flows through saline soils or through
saline groundwater to reduce contamination of recoverable irrigation return flows.
• Shunting polluted water to sinks - to avoid the need to dilute with freshwater, saline or otherwise
polluted water should be shunted directly to sinks.
• Reusing return flows.
Reallocating water among uses
• Reallocating water from lower- to higher-value uses. Reallocation will generally not result in any
direct water savings, but it can dramatically increase the economic productivity of water. Because
downstream commitments may change, reallocation of water can have serious legal, equity and
other social considerations that must be addressed.
Tapping uncommitted outflows
• Improving management of existing facilities to obtain more beneficial use from existing water
supplies. A number of policy, design, management and institutional interventions may allow for an
expansion of irrigated area, increased cropping intensity or increased yields within the service
areas. Possible interventions are reducing delivery requirements by improved application
efficiency, water pricing, and improved allocation and distribution practices.
* Reusing return flows through gravity and pump diversions to increase irrigated area.
* Adding storage facilities so that more water is available for release during drier periods.
Storage takes many forms including reservoir impoundments, groundwater aquifers, small
tanks and ponds on farmers' fields.
41 Entire Appendix is quoted from Molden, Amarasinghe and Hussain (2001)
25
Appendix E 42: Advice from Royal Irrigation Department
Varieties
• Use early varietes of local, photoperiod sensitive varieties. Local and photoperiod sensitive
varieties are grouped as early variety (120 days) medium variety (150 days) and late variety (180
days)
• Use high yield varieties, the production can be doubled with the same amount of water
consumption.
Growing season
• Cultivate in the rainy season and harvest at the end of the season.
• For non photoperiod sensitive varieties (110 to 120 days) the harvesting date should be planned at
the end of rainy season in order to set the growing date.
• Cropping calendar should be planned suitable to wet and dry season.
Cultivation practice
• Good land preparation with smooth level of each field plot.
• Do not plough so deep that hard pan will be broken.
• Compact field boundary (dike) to avoid seepage loss.
Irrigation system
• Concrete lining in irrigation system.
• Construct on-farm system (extensive or intensive on-farm development work)
Water application and management
• Irrigate water according to crop water requirement
• Keep water level in paddy field about 6 cm deep
• Introduce rotation irrigation
• Stop irrigation in the tillering stage for some time. Besides, the water saving oxygen can also be
brought the soil.
• Stop irrigation 20 days before harvesting.
• Introduce water user group and water fee.
42 Entire Appendix is quoted from Osot Charnvej (October 1999)
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