Soil Tillage System and Water Management Effect on Soil Physical Properties and Yield in Rainfed Paddy Field

Abstract

AbstractThe dry season rice yield production is generally lower than the wet season crop on the rainfed fields. The low yield of paddy is due to drought stress during the reproductive growth phase. This study aimed to determine the effect of water management and tillage system on rice yields at the rainfed fields. The experiment was conducted at the Jaken Experimental Station of the Indonesian Agricultural Environment Research Institute, Pati, Indonesia, from February to June 2019 with a split-plot design, repeated four times. The treatment consisted of water management as the main plot and soil tillage as a sub-plot. The treatment of water management was continuous flooding and depended on rainfall flooding. The treatment of the tillage system was normal tillage (0–10 cm) and deep tillage (25–30 cm). The tillage system and water management treatment did not significantly affect the yield of IR64 rice grain, with an average grain yield of 4.1 tons ha−1. Tillage system such deep and normal tillage significantly reduces bulk density during the maximum tillering phase. Even it has not yet given significant results, deep tillage and water management have a great potential to improve soil physical properties. Further research in the next crop season is needed to complete the data and obtain more in-depth information about the study.KeywordsRainfed paddySoil tillage systemWater management