Performance of different conservation practices for irrigated paddy rice (Oryza sativa) cultivation as affected by soil texture of Mymensingh region in Bangladesh

Soil moisture is critical to the growth and yield-contributing character traits of rice. However, few studies have yet to outline the effects of soil texture on irrigated paddy rice cultivation under diverse conservation techniques. In this regard, an experiment was conducted at the Field Irrigation Laboratory of Bangladesh Agricultural University to investigate the water productivity and yield-contributing characteristics of paddy rice (Oryza sativa L.; variety: BRRI dhan 28) during Boro season for two years with two different soil textures (silt loam, 2019 and loam, 2020) and three different irrigation techniques, namely, Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), Raised Bed (RB) and the conventional Continuous Flooding (CF). It was observed that seepage in CF treatment was higher than that of AWD and RB. Highest grain yield (6.70±0.04 t/ha) was found for 15 cm AWD treatment (irrigation applied when water level reached 15 cm below ground surface) for silt loam and the same for loam soil was 6.53±0.50 t/ha under 10 cm AWD treatment. CF method of irrigation yielded grain lowest for both silt loam (5.47±0.05) t/ha and loam (5.28±0.19) t/ha soil. For both soil textures, CF treatment required more water than conservation treatments and resulted in lower water productivity. Again, for both the types of soil, AWD performed comparatively better than the CF, especially 15 cm AWD for silt loam soil and 10 cm AWD for loam soil because it required minimum water for paddy rice cultivation and its water productivity was maximum for the same rice production. Therefore, adopting these water-conserving methods would have a considerable implication for water-scarce agricultural regions.