Enhancing rice production sustainability and resilience via reactivating small water bodies for irrigation and drainage.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37365166.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-39454-w and PMC identifier 10293188.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Rice farming threatens freshwater resources, while also being increasingly vulnerable to drought due to climate change. Rice farming needs to become more sustainable and resilient to climate change by improving irrigation drainage systems. Small water bodies, used to store drainage water and supply irrigation in traditional rice farming systems have gradually been abandoned in recent decades. This has resulted in a higher water footprint (WF) associated with rice farming due to increased freshwater usage and wastewater release, also leaving rice production more vulnerable to extreme weather events. Here, we propose how protecting and reactivating small water bodies for rice irrigation and drainage can decrease rice production WF in China by 30%, save 9% of China's freshwater consumption, increase irrigation self-sufficiency from 3% to 31%, and alleviate yield loss in dry years by 2-3%. These findings show that redesigning rice irrigation drainage systems can help meet water scarcity challenges posed by climate change.