Irrigation in rice crops ensures resource savings and greater efficiency

Rice is among the most consumed cereals in the world, and its demand tends to increase as the world population grows. Producers need to maintain supply to avoid shortages and this necessarily involves increasing productivity. One of the bottlenecks today in some producing regions is the scarcity of water and energy, which can compromise harvest results. One of the solutions available to rice farmers is through central pivot-type automated irrigation systems that provide, among many benefits, the exact amount of water at the right time.

Rice producers in Australia, Brazil and the United States can already achieve water savings of 20% to 50% using pivots, compared to traditional flooding methods. This is done through automated controls and specially selected emitters, mainly because rice is a very shallow-rooting crop where heavy blade applications can cause problems. The use of pivots for rice irrigation makes it possible to cultivate it in soils with a higher sand content, where until then it was not possible with flood irrigation.

Rice cultivation under pivot irrigation when compared to traditional flood methods has many additional benefits in addition to saving water, energy and labor. One of the biggest advantages is flexibility with great cultivation potential while maintaining high productivity. Benefits and possibilities include: growing rice on lighter soils that cannot be managed with traditional flood irrigation, opening new areas with other crops to improve soil condition/fertility, flexibility of rotation with different crops to meet crop demands market, better definition of the planting and harvesting date and one of the major impacts is the reduction in the cost of preparing the soil for the implementation of the crop.

The use of pivots for rice irrigation compared to the flood method also has many environmental benefits. The main ones include: optimizing water use, eliminating habitats for disease-carrying mosquitoes, reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are common with flooded fields and also saving energy by reducing pumping.

Remote control

For more tech-savvy producers who do not give up rigorous activity monitoring, the great solution already on the market is FieldNET. The wireless management technology provided by Lindsay, for example, is fully integrated and allows you to view and control your systems from anywhere.

From remote access, either by smartphone or tablet, the tool makes it possible to create variable rate irrigation plans, define stops and movements, create usage reports, monitor performance and gains throughout your operation and even provide updates and alerts in real time. Furthermore, the producer has access to pressure, flow, water level and power that have a great impact on reducing energy use and less wear and tear on equipment.

Along with this, the tool reduces the use of chemicals and fertilizers on rice. The technology ensures uniform and precise application of products, reduced application costs when compared to flooding irrigated paddy rice and also reduced potential danger to the environment due to lower concentrations of chemical products.