Water Saving Technology of Summer Rice by Using Bio-Mulches

The use of bio-mulch in rice crop under soil water stress is a new dimension for water saving, soil physical health improvement and nutrient utilization which lead to better crop growth and yield and higher water use efficiency. Application of bio-mulches in rotational stress largely improved the growth and yield parameters. Bio-mulching improved grain yield by 20.5% - 50.7%, field Water Use Efficiency by 10%- 41% over continuous submergence and by 19.9% - 53.9% over stress control. It also gave considerably higher physical and monetary water productivity. Among the bio-mulches rice chaffy grain conserved 34% - 48% more soil water at different stress cycles irrespective of crop growth. Bio-mulches under rotational submergence largely improved the nutrient availability. Mulching improved the soil organic carbon status by 9.5% - 18.24%. Total microbial biomass increased with stress and mulching. The research data of this book makes it useful reference for researchers, under graduate and post graduate students of agriculture and farming community.