Introduction
⌅The rice (Oryza sativa L.) it is one of the main foods to world level together with the wheat and the corn, with a production of 509,2 million tons (FAO, 2020FAO: Perspectivas de cosechas y situación alimentaria - Informe trimestral mundial N° 2, julio 2020, Inst. FAO, Roma, Italia., Roma, Italia., 2020.), that come, for the most part, of Asian countries as China and India.
According to Díaz et al. (2021)DÍAZ, S.S.H.; MOREJÓN, R.R.; PÉREZ, L.N.: “ISRA LP-24. Nuevo cultivar de arroz (Oryza sativa L.) de ciclo medio, obtenido por hibridaciones”, Cultivos Tropicales, 42(4), 2021, ISSN: 0258-5936., Cuba is one of the countries that registers high values of consumption of rice with 72 kg per capita in a year, for that it is important to increase the national production of this grain to small and medium scale, since currently it satisfies only the 50 % of the necessities.
As any crop, the rice has stages during the cycle of growth that are more sensitive to the lack of humidity in the soil, mainly after the transplant, during the tillering stage, during the initiation and at the floral primordium development, in the blossoming and during the development of the panicles, up to two weeks before the crop.
The irrigation is necessary to supply the deficiencies in water of the crop, and when water is not available for irrigation it is better than the farmer planted other crops, due to the economic losses that can be caused planting rice without supplementary irrigation (Reyes, 2003REYES, D.N.: El cultivo de arroz. (Oryza sativa). Manual técnico para consultores agrícolas y productores, La Habana, Cuba, 51 p., 2003.).
In this context, the water plays an important role in the grain production. Now the 80 % of the surface planted of rice is cultivated under conditions of continuous flooding from the transplant until the physiologic maturity, and the remaining 20 % using the method of direct sowing. In both cases big volumes of water are used surpassing the 14 000 m3·ha- (Hernaiz y Alvarado, 2007HERNAIZ, S.; ALVARADO, J.: “Manejo del agua en el arrozal”, Arroz, Manejo Tecnológico. Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, Chillán, Chile, : 49-68, 2007.). In the cultivation of the rice should be considered the losses of water due to the evapotranspiration of the plant, infiltration and percolation in the soil, being necessary to practice an specific of handling of the water (for example, drainage before the application of agrochemicals), and also a good initial soil farming and the drainage of the area before the tillering stage (Bouman et al., 2007BOUMAN, B.; LAMPAYAN, R.M.; TUONG, T.P.: Water management in irrigated rice: coping with water scarcity, Ed. International Rice Research Institute, Los Baños, Philippines, International Rice Research Institute, Los Baños, Philippines, 2007, ISBN: 971-22-0219-4.). This way, the rice is a high demander of the water resources.
The expression of the final result of the balance of water needs for rice cropping during all its cycle is the net irrigation standard, that is to say the quantity of total water to be planned (without keeping in mind the losses in the conduction system, distribution and application) to obtain the wanted yield.
According to Herrera et al. (2020)HERRERA, J.; MENESES, J.; DUARTE, C.; GONZÁLEZ, F.; HERVÍS, G.: “Determinación del coeficiente de cultivo para la estimación de la evapotranspiración del arroz en Cuba”, Revista Ciencias Técnicas Agropecuarias, 29(3): 5-20, 2020, ISSN: 2071-0054., the parameters percolation and evapotranspiration occupy among the 80 % to 90 % of the water applied, of there the importance of the determination of the characteristics of the infiltration into the soil (it determines the percolation) and of the consumption of water by the crop, which is a function of the variety, of the duration of the cycle and of the climatic demand, in relationship this last one with the time of the crop’s development.
The present work was carried out with the objective of knowing the necessities of irrigation of the rice sowed in a Plastic Dark Gleyed soil.
Materials and Methods
⌅The work was carried out in the Agroindustrial Company of Grains (EAG) "Fernando Echenique", province of Granma, Cuba, taking like base the information of the available climatic variables in the National Agrometeorological Bulletin of the National Meteorological Institute INSMET-Cuba (2024)INSMET-CUBA: Reportes de las estaciones metereológicas de Cuba, Inst. Instituto de Meteorología. La Habana. Cuba, La Habana, Cuba, 2024..
For the selection of the hydrological years was carried out the study of a series of 13 years (2008 - 2020) of the pluviometer located in "Veguita", province Granma, with geographic coordinates of 20°13´38,59" N and 76°57´3,40" W to a height of 41 m.o.s.l where the empiric probability was determined starting from the following expression:
Where:
m: order number.
n: number of members of the series.
Each one of the years of the series was classified in function of their probability and for each time of sowing of the crop. The 25 % of probability denotes a humid scenario, 50 % medium and 75 % dry, according to Pérez & Álvarez (2005)PÉREZ, R.; ÁLVAREZ, M.: “Necesidades de Riego de la Caña de Azúcar en Cuba”, Editorial Academia-IIRD, Formato digital. C. Habana, Cuba, Capítulos, 2(3): 4, 2005., with the program WINKOL.exe.
For the estimate of the ET 0 was started of the definition of the sowing dates more common in Cuba (Table 1) according to IIG-Cuba (2020)IIG-CUBA: Instructivo Técnico del cultivo del Arroz, Inst. Instituto de Investigaciones de Granos (IIG), Imprenta EAS-MINAG, La Habana, Cuba, 142 p., 2020. which are the following:
| No. | Sowing dates | Duration, days |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | December - May | 130 y 140 |
| 2 | May - September | |
| 3 | July - October |
Were taken like reference for the determination of the net and total irrigation requirements the results of Maqueira (2014)MAQUEIRA, L.: “Relación de los procesos fisiológicos del desarrollo y de variables meteorológicas, con la formación del rendimiento en el cultivo del arroz (Oryza sativa L.) en Los Palacios, Pinar del Río”, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Agrícolas (INCA), San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque, Cuba, 2014. & Herrera et al. (2020)HERRERA, J.; MENESES, J.; DUARTE, C.; GONZÁLEZ, F.; HERVÍS, G.: “Determinación del coeficiente de cultivo para la estimación de la evapotranspiración del arroz en Cuba”, Revista Ciencias Técnicas Agropecuarias, 29(3): 5-20, 2020, ISSN: 2071-0054., where they defined four stages of vegetative development: initial, development, medium and end of the season, with crop coefficients (K c ) for the stages initial, medium and final. The K c are shown in the Table 2.
| Development phases | K c |
|---|---|
| Initial (GDCA 505 ±5) | 0.8 |
| Vegetative (GDA 1299 ±21) | 1.2 |
| Reproductive (GDCA 2136 ±98) | 1.4 |
| Final (GDCA 2555±168) | 1.3 |
In the table 3, are summarized the parameters of entrance of the soil module using the program CropWat in function of the soil type defined by GOC-Cuba (2020)GOC-CUBA: “Resolución 17- 2020 Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidráulicos (INRH)”, Gaceta Oficial de la República de Cuba, : 35, GOC 2020-557-061, 2020, ISSN: 0864 I-0793, e-ISSN: 1682-7511..
| Parameter | Group I |
|---|---|
| Available total humidity in the soil (DC-CM, mm/m) | 270 |
| Highest rate of infiltration of the rain (mm/day) | 17 |
| Highest depth of the crop’s roots (cm) | 50 |
| Initial exhaustion of the humidity of the soil (as % of ADT) (%) | 100 |
| Humidity of the soil initially available (mm/m) | 0 |
| Drainable porosity (SAT-DC) (%) | 5 |
| Critical exhaustion by cracks in the soil remaining after mudding (fraction) | 0.6 |
| Highest percolation rates after the mudding (mm/day) | 2.6 |
| Availability of water for the sowing (% saturation) | 0 |
| Highest height of the sheet of water (mm) | 100 |
For the estimation of the total net water requirements the tool CropWat version 8.0 was used. This software allows to negotiate irrigation programs so much under unirrigated land conditions as of irrigation, for what it was used to determine the reference evapotranspiration since it uses the Penman-Monteith method of the FAO.
For the calculation of the total net water requirements were used the following approaches:
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Moment of the irrigation: To water when the level 50 mm high of the water is reached.
-
Application of the irrigation: To apply water to reach the level of 100 mm high.
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Fraction of permissible exhaustion: p = 50 %.
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Efficiency of the irrigation (Field eff.) 60%: Surface irrigation of the rice, according to Resolution 17/2020 of INRHGOC-CUBA: “Resolución 17- 2020 Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidráulicos (INRH)”, Gaceta Oficial de la República de Cuba, : 35, GOC 2020-557-061, 2020, ISSN: 0864 I-0793, e-ISSN: 1682-7511..
Once obtained the total net water requirements of the rice for the three sowing times and a medium cycle of the crop (140 days) they were compared with the ones that establishes the Resolution 17/2020GOC-CUBA: “Resolución 17- 2020 Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidráulicos (INRH)”, Gaceta Oficial de la República de Cuba, : 35, GOC 2020-557-061, 2020, ISSN: 0864 I-0793, e-ISSN: 1682-7511. for the study region (Herrera et al., 2019HERRERA, J.; HERVIS, G.; GONZÁLEZ, F.; DUARTE, C.: “Estudio sobre el balance hídrico del arroz en Cuba”, Ingeniería Agrícola, 9(3), 2019, ISSN: 2227-8761.).
Results and Discussion
⌅Hydrological study of the years for each sowing time
⌅Of the hydrological study of the work place was possible to define the humid, medium and dry years, of which were processed the climatic variables that intervene in the determination of the reference evapotranspiration and the effective rainfall for their later running in the programming tool CropWat. In the Figure 1 (A, B and C), are shown the studies of the rainfalls by sowing periods.
The table 4 show the hydrological years for the sowing times and the effective rainfalls in millimeters.
| Site | December - May | May - September | July - October | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H | M | S | H | M | S | H | M | S | |
| EAG “Fernando Echenique” | 2012 | 2010 | 2017 | 2019 | 2015 | 2010 | 2010 | 2012 | 2009 |
| 281.4 | 267.5 | 203.7 | 568.5 | 540.4 | 501.7 | 442.4 | 425.6 | 352.5 | |
Legend: H: humid (25 %), M; medium (50 %); S: dry (75 %).
In the figure 2 (A, B and C) the balance of water availability is shown for the study area in the three sowing periods for a dry year. Can be appreciated that in the period December-May the reference evapotranspiration (ET 0) surpasses the effective rainfalls during the whole cycle of life of the crop. In the period May-September only in the month of September the accumulated effective rainfalls surpasses the ET 0. In the period July-October equally in the month of September the accumulated rainfalls surpasses the ET 0. This all indicates it that the irrigation is indispensable to satisfy the water requirements of the crop.
Similar results to those obtained, are informed by Herrera et al. (2019)HERRERA, J.; HERVIS, G.; GONZÁLEZ, F.; DUARTE, C.: “Estudio sobre el balance hídrico del arroz en Cuba”, Ingeniería Agrícola, 9(3), 2019, ISSN: 2227-8761. in the work "Studies about the water availability of the rice in Cuba" and more recent for Herrera et al. (2020)HERRERA, J.; MENESES, J.; DUARTE, C.; GONZÁLEZ, F.; HERVÍS, G.: “Determinación del coeficiente de cultivo para la estimación de la evapotranspiración del arroz en Cuba”, Revista Ciencias Técnicas Agropecuarias, 29(3): 5-20, 2020, ISSN: 2071-0054. in "Determination of the crop coefficient for the estimate of the evapotranspiration of the rice in Cuba", in which a reference is made to the deficit of rainfalls in the three sowing periods of the rice, and where in general sense for most of the months, the reference evapotranspiration is higher than the volume of rainfalls.
Net total irrigation requirements estimated for different periods of sowing and probability of occurrence of the 75 % of the rainfalls (dry year)
⌅In the Table 5 are shown the net total requirements estimated for the sowing period December-May for the cycles of life of the rice of 130 and 140 days for a dry year. The water requirements varied among 9 110,4 m3·ha-1 for 130 days and 9 654,0 m3·ha-1 for 140 days. Similar results were informed by Camejo et al. (2017)CAMEJO, B.L.E.; DUARTE, N.L.; RIVERÓN, L.A.R.: “El riego del arroz (Oryza sativa L.) con limitación de agua en suelos oscuros plásticos del municipio Cham-bas”, Universidad y Ciencia, 6(Especial UNICA): 61-78, 2017, ISSN: 2227-2690. an study carried out on the irrigation of the rice in dark plastics soils when comparing a handling system allowed to diminish the sheet of water in the terrace up to 3 cm and restoring it later on up to 10 cm until the 50 % of panicles formation with the traditional system of permanent flooding, obtaining a decrease in 50 % of the irrigation needs without affectations in the yielding.
The evapotranspiration of the crop (E tc ) in this time it was of 5.75 mm3·day-1 for 130 days and of 5.44 mm·day-1 for 140 days. Similar results were informed by Ruiz (2014)RUIZ, S.: “Requerimientos de agua en el cultivo del arroz en la UEB “Sierra Maestra”, Los Palacios, Pinar del Río, Universidad Tecnológica de La Habana, Facultad de Ingeniería Civil, Centro de Investigaciones Hidráulicas (CIH) Instituto de Investigaciones Agrícolas (IAgric), Eng”, 2014. in a work carried out on requirements of water in the cropping of the rice using the program CropWat 8.0 FAO (2009)FAO: Program CropWat 8.0, Rome, Italy, 2009. and (Steduto et al., 2012STEDUTO, P.; C HSIAO, T.; FERERES, E.; RAES, D.: “Respuesta del rendimiento de los cultivos al agua”, 2012, ISSN: 1020-4393.) with the coefficients (K c) proposed by Allen et al. (2006)ALLEN, R.G.; PEREIRA, L.; RAES, D.; SMITH, M.: “Evapotranspiration-Guidelines for computing crop water requirements”, FAO Irrigation and drainage paper, 56: 300, 2006, ISSN: 92-5-304219-2..
| Probability of rainfalls (%) | Effective rainfalls (mm) | ET c (mm) | Net water requirement (mm) | Total losses by percolation (mm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 130 days | ||||
| 75 | 118.2 | 747.1 | 911.04 | 157.8 |
| 140 days | ||||
| 75 | 157.6 | 761.1 | 965.4 | 183.5 |
For the period May-September the estimated total net water requirements varied between 7 913,0 and 4 399,0 m3·ha-1 for the cycles of life of 130 and 140 days as appears in the Table 6. The evapotranspiration of the crop (ET c) is increased in 6 % when the cycle varied from 130 to 140 days.
In a work carried out by Bouman et al. (2012)BOUMAN, B.A.M.; HAEFELE, S.M.; HIZZI, G.; PENG, S.; HSIAO, T.C.: Respuesta del rendimiento de los cultivos al agua, Ed. Estudio FAO Riego y Drenaje 56, Roma, Italy, Steduto, P.; T.C. Hsiao; E. Fereres&D. Raes Ed. ed., 2012, ISBN: 978-92-5-308564-4., they refer that in the middle of the crop’s cycle, when there are a complete covering of the crop, the rice evapontranspire to a rate lightly higher to the reference evapotranspiration (ET 0), with averages daily rates of ET c of 4-5 mm·day-1 in tropical humid season and 6-7 mm·day -1 in tropical dry season, but they can arrive up to 10-11 mm·day -1 in the arid regions.
| Probability of rainfalls (%) | Effective rainfalls (mm) | ET c (mm) | Total net water requirements (mm) | Total losses by percolation (mm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 130 days | ||||
| 75 | 637.2 | 865.2 | 791.3 | 233.8 |
| 140 days | ||||
| 75 | 650.6 | 921.6 | 439.9 | 295.5 |
In the period July-October (Table 7), the estimated total net water requirements varied between the 8078,0 and 7072,0 m3·ha-1 for the cycles of life 130 and 140 days. The evapotranspiration of the crop (ET c) increases in 5,2 % when the cycle varied from 130 to 140 days.
| Probability of rainfalls (%) | Effective rainfalls (mm) | ET c (mm) | Total net water requirements (mm) | Total losses by percolation (mm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 130 days | ||||
| 75 | 394.7 | 807.8 | 659.6 | 224.0 |
| 140 days | ||||
| 75 | 402.9 | 852.3 | 707.2 | 249.7 |
The results shown coincide with the ones informed by Reyes (2003)REYES, D.N.: El cultivo de arroz. (Oryza sativa). Manual técnico para consultores agrícolas y productores, La Habana, Cuba, 51 p., 2003. in a work on the management of the irrigation where it outlines that a minimum supply of 1 liter of water per second per hectare during 24 hours in the parcel is enough for a crop of rice under irrigation, provided that the evaporation, infiltration and filtration indexes stay to the minimum with a good management of the irrigation in the plantation. The above-mentioned is approximately equal to about 26-30 gallons/minute during 10 hours daily per hectare. That is to say, that requires having a minimum of 300 gallons/minute during 10 hours per day for a project of some 10 hectares. The previous supply is in a consumption of approximately of 6 000 to 7 000 m3 of water for hectare, in approximately 100 days of permanent or continuous irrigation during the cycle of the crop (Pérez & Álvarez, 2005PÉREZ, R.; ÁLVAREZ, M.: “Necesidades de Riego de la Caña de Azúcar en Cuba”, Editorial Academia-IIRD, Formato digital. C. Habana, Cuba, Capítulos, 2(3): 4, 2005.).
Comparison of the total net water requirements obtained with the programming of the irrigation by means of the program CropWat and the Resolution 17/2020 of the INRH
⌅The table 8 shows the total net water requirements approved by the INRH in the Resolution 17/2020 GOC-Cuba (2020)GOC-CUBA: “Resolución 17- 2020 Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidráulicos (INRH)”, Gaceta Oficial de la República de Cuba, : 35, GOC 2020-557-061, 2020, ISSN: 0864 I-0793, e-ISSN: 1682-7511. for an average cycle (140 days) and different sowing periods and the estimated using the program CropWat. When comparing the figures approved in the Resolution for the province of Granma in the Agroindustrial Company of Grains "Fernando Echenique" they are superior in the range of 19,3 and 42,5 % for the three sowing periods.
| Place | Sowing period | Total net water requirements estimated using CropWat (mm) | Total net water requirements (INRH) (mm) | Difference | % of increment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agroindustrial grains company “Fernando Echenique”, province Granma | 130 days | 140 days | 140 days | |||
| Dic-May | 911.04 | 965.4 | 1184.9 | 219.5 | 19.3 | |
| May-Sept | 791.3 | 439.9 | 1034.0 | 594.1 | 42.5 | |
| Jul-Oct | 659.6 | 707.2 | 940.0 | 232.8 | 24.7 | |
Similar results to those obtained have been informed by Camejo et al. (2017)CAMEJO, B.L.E.; DUARTE, N.L.; RIVERÓN, L.A.R.: “El riego del arroz (Oryza sativa L.) con limitación de agua en suelos oscuros plásticos del municipio Cham-bas”, Universidad y Ciencia, 6(Especial UNICA): 61-78, 2017, ISSN: 2227-2690., who when comparing a management system where allowed to diminish the sheet of water in the terrace up to 3 cm and restoring it later on up to 10 cm, also until 50 % the formation of the panicles with the traditional system of permanent flooding, they obtained a decrease in 50 % of water needs for the irrigation without affectations in the yield.
In a study carried out by Herrera et al. (2019)HERRERA, J.; HERVIS, G.; GONZÁLEZ, F.; DUARTE, C.: “Estudio sobre el balance hídrico del arroz en Cuba”, Ingeniería Agrícola, 9(3), 2019, ISSN: 2227-8761. about the balance of water requirements for the rice in Cuba, they informs that the demands of water in the rice are carried out on the basis of a gross norm of 17 400 m3·ha-1, and is calculated a global efficiency of the system that fluctuates among 0,68 for the western and central region and 0,70 for the Westerner Polon (2003)POLÓN, R.: “Prácticas agroecológicas para disminuir las afectaciones del arroz rojo (Oryza sativa L.). I. Rotación con Soya, manejo del agua y laboreo del suelo en húmedo”, Cultivos Tropicales, 24(2): 45-49, 2003, ISSN: 1819-4087.. This should indicate a net water requirements of 11 832 and 12 180 m3·ha-1 for the eastern, central and western regions, respectively. The same author refers that the intense droughts of the years 2014 - 2015, forced to the reduction of these norms with a view to maintaining the area sowed at a fixed level of 14 000 m3·ha-1. This reduction was not based on studies of the balance of water requirements of the crop, but rather in the historical averages of the real consumptions of water for irrigation.
Conclusions
⌅For a dry year of 75 % of probability of occurrence of rainfalls in the period May-December the consumption of water is of 9 110,4 m3·ha-1, in the period May-September the rice needs 7913,0 m3·ha-1 and for the period July-October of 6596,0 m3·ha-1 for a cycle of life of 130 days.
For a cycle of life of 140 days and 75 % of probability the total net requirements are the following: May-December 9 654,0 m3·ha-1, May-September 4 399,0 m3·ha-1 and for the period July-October is of 7072,0 m3·ha-1.
The evapotranspiration of the crop (ET c) for the study area stayed in the range of 5,4 and 6,21 mm·day-1 in dependence of the sowing period and the cycle of life of the rice.
When comparing the total net requirements that roposes the Resolution 17/2020 for a average cycle of 140 days and a year of 75 % of probability of occurrence of rainfalls, with those obtained in this study they are higher between a 19,3 and 42,5 % in function of the sowing period.