Alternate Wetting and Drying with Pani Pipe technology in Lowland Paddy

 Alternate Wetting and Drying 

    It is the controlled method of irrigation in the lowland rice cultivating area. The Water consumption in this method is very less when compared to the Conventional Continuous flooding Irrigation. The Alternate wetting and Drying method is highly depends on the environmental factors such as Soil type, texture Moisture Holding Capacity, Rainfall, Crop Growth Stage and temperature. So.., You may ask

     What is AWD, it is nothing but Alternate Wetting and Drying, irrigating the lowland Rice when the field flooded water is completely drains (or) Irrigating the field after disappearance of pooled standing water and make it continuously flooded and Non flooded. An efficient water saving technology with minimizing the Quantity of yields.

Pani pipe technology

    Here the field water tube (Pani pipe) is used to monitor the depth of water in the field and also used to determine next irrigation requirement when water completely drains.

Dimension of Pani pipe 

•     30 cm Long Plastic  PVC Pipe or bamboo
•    15 cm Diameter

How To Implement ?

    Make holes at 15 cm above the bottom and Hammer the tube into the soil so that 15 cm protrudes above the soil surface. Take care not to penetrate through the bottom of the plow pan. Remove the soil from inside the tube so that the bottom of the tube is visible. 

     After irrigation, the water depth will gradually decrease. When the water level has dropped to about 15 cm below the surface of the soil, irrigation should be applied to re-flood the field to a depth of about 5 cm. From one week before to a week after flowering, the field should be kept flooded, topping up to a depth of 5 cm as needed. After flowering, during grain filling and ripening, the water level can be allowed to drop again to 15 cm below the soil surface before re-irrigation.

Depth is below 5cm. So it is time to re irrigate 

     When the field is flooded, check that the water level inside the tube is the same as outside the tube. If it is not the same after a few hours, the holes a probably blocked with compacted soil and the tube needs to be carefully re-installed. The tube should be placed in a readily accessible part of the field close to a bund, so it is easy to monitor the ponded water depth. The location should be representative of the average water depth in the field (i.e. it should not be in a high spot or a low spot