Short-duration rice: implications for water-use efficiency in the New South Wales rice industry
2002
Williams, R.L. | Farrell, T. | Hope, M. | Reinke, R. | Snell, P.
A reduction in growth duration is an ongoing objective of the New South Wales (NSW) rice breeding program. One of its benefits is a reduction in the period of ponding, and hence in water use. This is important in light of current water restrictions and the increasing cost of irrigation water. The effect of growth duration on water-use efficiency (WUE), here defined as yield divided by total water use (t ML¯¹), had until now not been quantified. This effect has now been estimated using the rice crop model TRYM, which was used to simulate rice yield and total water use for three crop durations and three sowing dates over 42 seasons of weather data. As duration from sowing to flowering decreased, yield declined by 0.12 t ha¯¹d¯¹ and water use declined by 0.078 ML ha¯¹d¯¹. Thus, in response to a 20-d reduction in time to anthesis, WUE declined from 0.80 to 0.71 t ML¯¹. A similar reduction in yield in response to growth duration was observed in two replicated trials of advanced breeding lines in the 1997-98 season (0.11 t ha¯¹d¯¹). To ensure that WUE does not decline, the yield of new short-season cultivars should not decline by more than 0.062 t ha¯¹ for each day's reduction in growth duration.
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