The impact of irrigation water management techniques on the performance of rice using treated wastewater reuse in Durban, South Africa

Abstract

Abstract The need to cultivate effluent-irrigated rice is paramount and synonymous with treated wastewater reuse, recycling and water resources management. A trial in a peri-urban set-up with a low-cost decentralized wastewater treatment system (DEWATS) was carried out in the 2017 and 2018 cropping seasons to assess the effect of irrigation water reuse management techniques on the yield and water productivity of rice. It was hypothesized that anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) irrigation water management does not have an effect on the yield of peri-urban grown rice. The impacts of irrigation water management techniques were very significant (P < 0.001) on the number of irrigation events, amount of irrigation and daily water balance. The impact was not significant (P > 0.05) on the tiller numbers per plant; it was however significant (P < 0.05) on the panicle numbers per plant. The effects were not significant (P > 0.05) on the plant height but significant (P < 0.05) on the yield rice for both trials. The effect was also significant (P < 0.05) on water productivity. The result proved that the hypothesis be rejected. It could be concluded that significant potential exists for applying wastewater reuse for non-drinking applications such as irrigation.