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Plant Science Today (PST)

Research Articles

Vol. 13 No. sp5 (2026): Recent Advances in Agriculture

Alternate wetting and drying demonstrates water smart productivity enhancement in rice

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.15405
Submitted
5 May 2026
Published
31-08-2026

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out by conducting frontline demonstration on irrigation scheduling with alternate wetting and drying (AWD) technology in rice variety PR 131 by Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in six districts of Punjab viz., Amritsar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Moga and Sangrur (representing 4 agro-climatic zones) during kharif 2024 at 60 locations, i.e., 10 per district, as per the action plan finalised by the Director, Indian Council of Agricultural Research- Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ICAR-ATARI), Zone-I, Ludhiana. The demonstrations were conducted to assess the irrigation water use, water productivity, energy efficiency and productivity analysis of rice crop. The statistical analysis was performed using a linear mixed-effects model in IBM SPSS statistics to assess the main and interaction effects. The results showed that AWD registered 16.94 %, 16.06 % and 16.55 % fewer number of irrigations, irrigation water use and water energy input in the overall analysis, respectively. On the contrary, AWD exhibited increases up to 24.39 % and 4.17 % in water productivity and energy output respectively, in comparison to the continuous flooding in all the zones. Alternate wetting and drying did not reach the level of significance in terms of the number of panicles and grains per panicle, but it significantly enhanced the 1000-grain weight (up to 3.39 %) and grain yield (up to 4.09 %) of rice crop relative to the continuous submergence. Economic analysis showed a significantly higher gross returns, net returns and benefit: cost (B:C) ratio in all the zones. Correlation analysis revealed negative relationship between water productivity and irrigation water use but a positive correlation with the grain yield of rice (0.621). The results of the demonstrations exhibit ecological and economic viability of alternate wetting and drying while maintaining better productivity of rice crop.

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