Alternate Wetting and drying technique

Alternate Wetting and drying technique

Context:

 Based on a 2023 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), rice paddies account for 8% of all human-made methane emissions in the atmosphere. Vietnamese farmers are adopting the alternate wetting and drying technique to cultivate rice, aiming to reduce methane emissions from their agricultural practices.

About:

• Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) is a watersaving technology used by lowland (paddy) rice farmers to reduce water usage in irrigated fields.
• In AWD, irrigation water is applied to flood the field after a certain number of days following the disappearance of ponded water, creating an alternating flooded and dried cycle.
• The duration of non-flooded soil in AWD between irrigations can vary from 1 day to more than 10 days, depending on the soil type.
• Additionally, farmers utilize large drones to spray organic fertilizer onto knee-high rice seedlings.

Benefits:

• AWD practices produce less methane, making them environmentally friendly.
• Utilizing drones for fertilization reduces labor costs.
• Drones ensure precise fertilizer application, preventing the release of excessive nitrogen gases from the soil, which can contribute to global warming effects.