Performance of Raised Bed Irrigation in Comparison to AWD and Flood Irrigation for Boro Rice

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University experimental farm to evaluate the performance of raised bed irrigation (RBI) system in comparison to alternate wetting and drying (AWD) and flood irrigation (FI) methods for Boro rice (BR 45) during 2012-2013. Four treatments: irrigation in raised bed two rows (T1), in raised bed three rows (T2), alternate wetting and drying (T3) and flood irrigation (T4) were considered for performance evaluation. The highest grain yield of 5.09 t/ha was produced in treatment T3 (AWD) followed by treatment T4 (FI) (4.77 t/ha), T1 (RBI two rows) (4.69 t/ha) and T2 (RBI three rows) (3.91 t/ha). The highest water productivity was obtained in treatment T1 (66.41 kg/ha- cm) followed by treatment T2 (58.33 kg/ha-cm) and T3 (48.77 kg/ha-cm). The least amount of water required to produce one kilogram (kg) of rice grain was in treatment T1 (1556 l/kg) while the highest was in treatment T4 (2341 l/kg). Treatment T1 (RBI two rows) and T2 (RBI three rows) required 34% and 22% less water than the flood irrigation (T4). Therefore, raised bed irrigation can be adopted for Boro rice in water scarce areas.