Study of Water Consumption, Growth Responses and Production of Two Rice Varieties in Different Irrigation Systems

Abstract

Water is one of the important inputs to support the growth and development of plants. Currently, water availability tend to be more limited due to environmental quality degradation and global warming. This study was conducted to determine the amount of water consumption of two rice varieties (IR-64 and Jatiluhur) in four irrigation systems (conventional, water-saturated, intermittent, and upland). The study was performed using a split block design with three replications. Upland system planted with direct seeding, while for others system transplanted at 12 days old seedling. Rice plants were grown under plastic house with 3 m x 3 m area per experimental unit, and water volume recorded by flowmeter in inlet systems. Observed variable consist of growth component, stomatal charactheristics, productivity and production component. The results showed that the conventional system consumed the highest volume of water (426,768 l) in one seasson. The least consumption of water reached by upland system (3,883 l), while the water saturated system consumed 74.3% and intermittent consumed 37.9% of conventional system water consumption. In the other hand, the intermittent and conventional systems had higher productivity than water saturated and upland sytems. There were no significantly different between varieties in water consumption. However, the yields of Jatiluhur variety produced higher grain per plot than IR-64 variety. The highest efficiency of water consumption reached by upland system (0.531 g/l), the second was intermittent system (0.020 g/l), and the lowest were conventional and water saturated systems (0.008 g/l).