Aerobic Rice: Producing More Rice with Less Water

Chan Chee Sheng, Sani Kimi, Azmi Man and Zainuddin PMD Hussain
MARDI Seberang Perai
Pusat Penyelidikan padi
Beg Berkunci 203, Pejabat Pos Kepala Batas
13200 Kepala Batas
Tel: 04-5751632; Fax: 04-5751725

ABSTRACT
Irrigated agriculture in Malaysia uses 75% of total freshwater and more than 90% devotes to
irrigated lowland rice production. The traditional irrigated lowland rice production requires
continuous flooding and needs relatively high water inputs. There are signs that water
availability is threatening the sustainability of the traditional way of irrigated rice production
system, due mainly to decreasing resources and competition from urban and industrial users. To
safeguard the food industry and conserve water, an alternate system of growing rice with less
water is required.
To date, the rice production in Malaysia had only achieved slightly more than 75% selfsufficiency level. To reach self-sufficiency level of 100%, and without seeking more water for
agricultural sector, a different approach in rice cultivation is needed. Aerobic rice is a
fundamentally different concept of growing rice, it is high yielding rice grown in non-puddled
and non-flooded fields under irrigation and high external inputs. To make aerobic rice successful,
new varieties and management practices must be developed. At the moment, aerobic rice
production systems using controlled irrigation such as overhead sprinkler, alternate wetting and
drying which could achieve a higher water productivity level are being carried out. Evidence
from studies showed that aerobic rice used only 50% of the water compared with the lowland
rice. The water productivity improved from 0.4 to 0.6 kg/m3. The reduction of the water used
mainly attributed from the reduced seepage and percolation losses, evaporation decreased since
there is no ponded layer, and also large amount of water used for land preparation can be
eliminated. The realization of water savings combined with high yields in aerobic rice depends
on good water and soil management, the basic understanding of crop-water relationships and
irrigation management.

Introduction
Declining fresh water availability for crop production and demands of ever increasing population
are posing threat to food security. Rice being the staple food for Malaysia and also major
consumer of irrigation water, development of alternate cultivars and cultivation methods with
high water use efficiency is vital to sustain rice production. The causes of declining fresh water
are diverse and location specific, but include decreasing resources (catchment areas, and silting
of reservoirs), decreasing quality (chemical and waste pollution), malfunctioning of irrigation
system, and most important, increasing competition from urban and industrial users. Particular in
dry season, lack of rainfall makes cropping impossible without irrigation. Farming communities
just have to cope with this water scarcity scenario, to reduce irrigation water to their fields. To
safeguard the food industry and conserve water, an alternate system of growing rice with less
water is required.
According to the rice growing environment, the rice cultivation can be classified into irrigated
lowland rice, rainfed lowland rice, upland rice and aerobic rice. In irrigated lowland rice, the
availability of water ensure that ponded water is maintain throughout or at least 80% of the crop
growing duration. Upland rice or aerobic rice fields have well-drain, non-saturated soil
conditions without ponded water for more than 80% of the crop cycle.

Aerobic Rice
Aerobic rice is a fundamentally different approach of growing rice, it is high yielding rice grown
in non-puddled and non-saturated (i.e aerobic) fields under irrigation and high external inputs.
When rainfall is insufficient, irrigation is applied to replenish the soil water content in the root
zone to field capacity after it has reached a certain threshold level. The amount of irrigation
water applied should meet the evaporation from the soil, transpiration from the crop and
application efficiency losses.
The potential amount of water reductions for aerobic rice production is large when rice can be
grown as upland crop such as maize and wheat. The reductions are especially significant on soils
with high seepage and percolation rates. Apart from declining in these two components, free

surface evaporation also decreases since there is no ponded water layer, and the large amount of
water used for wet land preparation is eliminated altogether.
In Malaysia, upland rice is already grown aerobically with minimum inputs in the upland
environment like in Sabah and Sarawak, but mostly as a low-yielding subsistence crop to give
stable yields under the adverse environmental conditions of the uplands. Upland rice varieties are
drought tolerance, but have a low yielding potential and not responsive to external inputs such as
fertilizer and supplemental irrigation. Using the current high-yielding varieties grown under
aerobic conditions, with supplemental irrigation, have been shown to save water, but at a severe
yield penalty. Achieving high yields under irrigated but aerobic soil conditions requires new
varieties of aerobic rice that combined the drought-tolerant characteristics of upland varieties and
with the high-yielding of the lowland varieties and also responsive to external inputs. Thus,
aerobic rice must be able to withstand dry soil, respond to irrigation and to fertilizers, and deliver
a high yield.

Yield Potential and Water Requirements of Aerobic Rice

Since mid-eighties, aerobic rice has been planted in northern China and Brazil with the estimated
yield potential of 6-7 ton/ha. In the recent trials in Beijing, China, yields obtained from the
aerobic rice production ranging from 2.9 to 5.7 t/ha with only 500-900 mm of total water input
(Table 1). For comparison, the aerobic rice varieties yielded 5.4 to 6.8 t/ha under flooded
lowland conditions, receiving about 1300mm of total water input (Yang Xiaoguang et al, 2005;
Bouman et al, 2006). Xue et al (2007) reported average yield of 4.1 ton/ha with 688 mm of total
water input in 2003, and 6.0 ton/ha with 705 mm of water input in 2004 (Table 1). Bouman et al
(2007) reported yields of aerobic rice obtained by farmers around North China Plain of up to 5.5
ton/ha with sometimes as little as 566 mm of total water input, and with only one or two
supplementary irrigation applications. In Brazil, aerobic rice varieties with a yield potential of 6
ton/ha has been reported (Pinheiro et al, 2006).

Table 1: Water input (I=irrigation, R=rainfall) and rice yield under different production
environment
Year Location
Variety Growing
Water
Yield
Water
environment
input
(ton/ha)
productivity
I+R
(kg/m3)
(mm)
2001 Beijing, China Aerobic Flooded
1350
5.4 6.8
0.45
2002 Beijing, China Aerobic Flooded
1250
4.6 5.3
0.40
2007 Malaysia
Lowland Flooded
1200
6.0
0.50

2001
2002
2003
2003
2002

Beijing, China
Beijing, China
Beijing
Beijing
Kaifeng, N
China
2007 Malaysia

Aerobic
Aerobic
Aerobic
Aerobic
Aerobic

Aerobic
Aerobic
Aerobic
Aerobic
Aerobic

470 - 650
550 - 900
688
600 - 700
566

2.5 5.7
2.9 5.7
3.6 4.5
5.0-6.0
5.5

0.73
0.59
0.59
0.85
0.97

lowland

Aerobic

560

3.15

0.57

In the Philippines, Atlin et al (2006) reported aerobic rice yields of 3-4 ton/ha using recently
developed aerobic rice varieties in farmer fields under rainfed upland conditions. Bouman et al
(2005) and Peng et al (2006) also showed that the tropical aerobic rice variety Apo yielded 4.0 5.7 ton/ha under aerobic condition in the dry season. And in the wet season, they were 3.5 4.2
ton/ha. On average, aerobic fields used 190 mm less water in land preparation, 250-300 less
seepage and percolation, 80 mm less evaporation, and 25 mm less transpiration than flooded
fields. In the hilly regions of Yunnan province, Southern China, farmers could realize yields of 3
4 ton/ha under intensified management. In Malaysia, local high yielding lowland variety was
planted in aerobic environment during off-season 2007. Overhead sprinkler and alternate wetting
and drying water application systems were employed. The crop yielded around 3.15 ton/ha. The
average amount of water use was 560 mm/season and sprinkler irrigation system required the
least amount. This translated to water productivity of 0.57 kg/m3. For comparison, Table 2 shows
the yield and water use performance for aerobic rice, lowland rice and maize. Among them,
maize is the most efficient water user, and our aerobic rice production system should develop
toward this.

Table 2: Average performance of aerobic rice, lowland rice and maize

Item

Year

Yield

2002
2003
2002
2003

Lowland
rice
7.3
3.7
1744
1149

2002
2003

0.42
0.32

Total
water
input
(mm)
Water
Prod
(kg/m3)

Average
5.5
1446

0.37

Aerobic
rice
4.4
3.0
553
830

0.79
0.36

Average
3.7
691

0.58

Maize

Average

7.5
5.7
414
674

1.81
0.85

6.6
544

1.33

Rice Yield Response to Water Availability

Facing water scarcity, farmers have little choice but to adapt to receiving less water than they
would need to keeps their fields continuously flooded. Figure 1 presents relationship of water
availability and some appropriate production systems. On the far left-hand side of the x-axis
(water availability), water is extremely short and without irrigation, the yields are very low. On
the other far right-hand side, water is abundant, and not a limiting factor, farmers can practice
continuous flooding of lowland rice and obtain the highest potential yield. In the middle range,
some form of water saving technologies such as alternate wetting and drying can be practiced to
improve water productivity. Therefore, going from left to right with increase water availability,
yields will increase accordingly.

Rice production systems to reduce water input

14

Rainfed

Furrow
Sprinkler

AWD

SSC

Water management
Reduced water depth

12

Lowland irrigated rice

Yield (ton/ha)

10

Aerobic Rice
6

Traditional upland rice

y = f(variety, climate, management)

Low

High

Water availability
Aerobic

FC

Saturated

Flooded

Field condition

AWD = Alternate wetting and drying

FC = Field capacity

SSC = Saturated soil culture

S = Saturation

Fig 1. Rice production system responses to water availability and soil conditions

Option for Rice Production System

The type of the production system adopted by the farmers depends on the level of water scarcity,
the irrigation infrastructure and on the socioeconomics of their production environment. When
water is not a limiting factor, wet direct seeding or transplanting is best suited to the farmers.
During the whole growing season, the field can keep 5-10 cm depth of ponded water. With some
water scarcity, the depth can be reduced to 3 cm. This is to reduce the hydrostatic pressure and
leads to minimize seepage and percolation losses.
With further increasing water scarcity, saturated soil culture can be practiced. The ponded water
is reduced to 0-1 cm. To avoid yield penalty especially water stress around flowering, a high

level control over irrigation water is required. If the supply of irrigation water is worsened, the
irrigation periods will have to become longer and water stress may occur. Then, some form of
water saving like alternate wetting and dry (AWD) where allowing the soil to dry out to a certain
level before reapplying irrigation water, need to be implemented. With still further increasing
water scarcity, yield of the lowland rice under AWD will continue to go down. At a certain point,
aerobic rice systems will give higher yields than flooded lowland rice.

Fig 2: Yield of aerobic rice and lowland rice at different levels of water regimes

Conclusion
Aerobic rice technology is to address the water crisis problem in tropical agriculture where there
is dwindling water supply or under harsh weather condition. It can be grown in water-short areas
that have insufficient water for the production of the lowland rice. Compared with conventional
irrigated lowland rice, as much as 50% of water can be saved using aerobic rice technology. And

quality of the rice is as good as rice grown using traditional methods. Certainly, there will be
some degrees of yield penalty due to stresses, but the water productivities are higher compared to
the lowland rice. The productivities improved from around 0.4 kg/m3 for lowland irrigated rice to
0.6 kg/m3 for aerobic rice. Hence, we can grow more rice with less water. This implied that in
areas where water is relatively scarce than land, total rice production can be maximized by
growing aerobic rice.

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