Research to be shown at MU Delta Center field day, Sept. 2
"With center-pivot irrigation, we could grow rice on fields with hills. It really opens up possibilities to other farmers who couldn't grow rice before."
Missouri
Rice is an important crop in southeastern Missouri, and a staple food for many people worldwide. Traditionally, rice is grown with flood irrigation, a method that reduces weeds but is labor-intensive, requires lots of water and limits production to areas with the right climate and soil.
Missouri is one of only six states that have the water, climate and terrain needed for commercial rice production. But researchers at the University of Missouri Delta Research Center are looking at a new way of growing rice, one that could expand rice production to places where it had been thought impossible.
Gene Stevens, Extension agronomist at the center, and MU research associate Jim Heiser, will discuss their preliminary findings at the Delta Research Center field day, Sept. 2, Portageville, Mo., in the Missouri Bootheel.
The MU researchers are experimenting with center-pivot irrigation, an overhead sprinkler system commonly used on corn and soybeans. On rice, the technique requires less labor, water and fuel than traditional rice farming.
"The main purpose of this experiment is to reduce water," Stevens said. "So far this season, we've used half the water and energy with this system compared to a traditional rice field."
Stevens and Heiser started the experiment this spring, comparing the performance of pivot-irrigated rice to a traditional flooded rice field. The pivot showed its water-saving potential after just a few weeks.
"On our flooded field, we used about 2 million gallons of water on a 6-acre field in just two-and-a-half weeks," Heiser said. "On the pivot system, we haven't even put out 1 million gallons yet and we've been watering for probably three weeks longer."
A global rice shortage and strained water resources in many rice-growing parts of the world underscore the need for an alternative rice production system, Stevens said.
"With the demand of rice in the world, and people in Asia not having enough rice, we can grow more rice in more fields with this system," he said.
The method could triple rice production in Missouri, Stevens said. "With center-pivot irrigation, we could grow rice on fields with hills. It really opens up possibilities to other farmers who couldn't grow rice before."
Missouri has about 200,000 acres of flood-irrigated rice, but expanding the crop is constrained by the sandy and silt soils that predominate in southeast Missouri, the state's rice-producing heart. Sandy soils leach water and make flooding cost-prohibitive, said Joe Henggeler, MU Extension irrigation specialist at the Delta Center.
"If you try to flood-irrigate sandy soil, it's very difficult because it's just too porous, and irrigation costs would go up significantly," he said. "You'd keep pumping water all the time, so farmers won't plant on these soils. But with a pivot, you're just applying smaller amounts of water every couple of days."
The Delta Center experiment has been set up on soil that is poor for traditional rice production. "It's very sandy and has a bad history of weed problems," Heiser said. "But we want to see what we can do under the worst circumstances, because if we can prove it to farmers under those conditions, they'll feel more comfortable trying it on their own land."
The three-year study is funded by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Mid-Valley Irrigation donated the center pivot.
If the project proves to be practical, it could encourage more farmers to grow rice and therefore increase the amount of rice in the food chain, Heiser said.
"A lot of farmers already have center pivots," he said. "They wouldn't have to learn a new system. They'd just have to learn to use it on rice."
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