“Rice. It Takes 5,000 Liters Of Water To Produce A Kilo Of Rice. Every Grain Counts.” Every Drop Counts!

On Facebook, above, I was horrified to read: “Rice. It takes 5,000 liters of water to produce a kilo of rice. Every grain counts.”

My reaction was: Isn’t that insane!? My God! Woefully, we are wasting water! Every drop counts!
(“Creative ways to save water[1]” image from Ecolife)

Is that piece of pinoyrice.com data wrong? I googled, and IRRI says that in India and the Philippines, the average is about 3,000 liters of water to produce 1 kilo of rice[2] (Knowledge Bank, IRRI.org). Not 5,000. So, that rice data is 40% wrong!

Actually, IRRI contradicts itself; elsewhere but in the same website, Rice Knowledge Bank, it says, “It takes 1,432 liters of water to produce 1 kg of rice[3].” So that rice data is 71% wrong!

Still, I question the 1,432 liters. I am an Agriculturist, a farmer’s son, and I went to the fields with my farmer father a few times, including harvesting rice with scythe. (Unfortunately, I sliced my left thumb, end of learning!)

I know that irrigation water in rice is used to flood the field, for several reasons:

(1) Control weed growth – Weed seeds cannot germinate.

(2) Control pest population – Insects & other organisms cannot thrive.

(3) Control disease occurrence – Soil-borne disease-causing organisms are killed.

What about methane and nitrous oxide emissions from flooded rice fields[4], as pointed out by BO Sander, KM Samson & RJ Buresh (Climate & Clean Air Coalition)? I never liked flooded ricefields since the first time I saw them!

We can avoidflooded ricefields. The creative cultivation technique?

Rotavate the field in such a way that you create an automatic organic matter layer all over the field!

This is an original technique I came up with many years ago. This results in the following:

(1)No weed growth because the weeds & their seeds are mechanically & biologically destroyed once and for all!

(2)Soil-borne disease-causing organisms are killed 100% along with the weeds.

(3)The soil all over the field is enriched with natural organic matter. 

(4)The soil is moist throughout the growing season because of the organic matter that has been laid on the surface of the whole field, trapping enough water from the rain as well as from capillary water rising from underground.

Sounds too good to be true? In fact, my brother-in-law Lorenzo Casasus has been practicing my rotavation technique with rice in the last 45 years in our hometown Asingan in Pangasinan – and has been consistently outyielding much his neighbor farmers! That technique came from me, from my wide reading and musings. I told him not to teach the technique, selfish me.

In any case, I personally challenge PhilRice for me to demonstrate what I have just described, either in Batac, Ilocos Norte; PhilRice Maligaya headquarters; or UP Los Baños PhilRice Station. Since I’m a poor man, all expenses must be shouldered by PhilRice.

No time/water to lose! A World-Wide Revolution in Rice Agriculture coming up!@517


[1]https://www.ecolifeconservation.org/updates/creative-ways-to-save-water/

[2]http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org/ericeproduction/III.1_Water_usage_in_rice.htm

[3]http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org/step-by-step-production/growth/water-management#:~:text=Continuous%20flooding%20helps%20ensure%20sufficient%20water%20and%20control%20weeds.&text=On%20average%2C%20it%20takes%201%2C432,an%20irrigated%20lowland%20production%20system.

[4]https://www.ccacoalition.org/en/resources/methane-and-nitrous-oxide-emissions-flooded-rice-fields-affected-water-and-straw

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Knorr Of Big Business Unilever Thinks Big Business Regenerative Agriculture – My Tiny Country PH Also Should!

Image
“Knorr’s plan for 50 regenerative agriculture projects is predicted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water use by an estimated 30% while improving biodiversity, soil health and livelihoods.” That is regenerative agriculture (RA) news by Julian Cirineo (05 Nov 2021, “Unilever Wants To Rethink How Farms Work To Secure Food And Resources For The Future,” Rappler , rappler.com ). Note: 50 (not 5 only) RA projects to improve greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and water use by 30% – plus improving biodiversity, soil health and livelihoods. Note the last 7 words in the above paragraph. How can RA improve biodiversity? RA requires that the farmer practices multiculture (a few or many crops grown at the same time in the same place), where monoculture (such as rice-only or corn-only) is the practice – the biodiversity improves crop health because of the ensuing balance of nature, such as some organisms feed on other organisms that would otherwise become pests or cause diseases. RA is your
Read more

In Looking At The Crown Of Thorns, I Found The Clowns

Image
We could use a surprise sense of humor!  Yes, especially on the wide problematic fields of Agriculture. There was this news that some high PH government officials wanted to probe Vice President Leni Robredo for “competing against” PH agencies in providing much-needed assistances during this coronavirus lockdown, and Marigs Laririt shared a picture-story on Facebook quoting Ms Leni as saying, “I didn’t know it was competition. I didn’t see any competitors!” Ms Marigs says, “Ay, parang friends ko kung sumagot si Mam.” (Ay, with Mam, it’s just like my friends answering back.) That is a two-handed backslap, and you can imagine the lady laughing! She is the humor-monger; they are the clowns. Today is Friday, 03 April 2020 and in one account ( Wikipedia ), Friday the 3 rd of April was crucifixion of Jesus and his crowning of thorns [1] . (images: Crown of Thorns [2]  from St Anthony Messenger , 1 st clown [3]  from The Guardian , 2 nd clown [4]  from Shutterstock ) About the living clowns I
Read more

“Natural Farming” – Aggie Journalists, We Must Be Careful With The Terms We Use!

Image
Look at the contrasting images: Which one is correct in claiming what is being practiced is “natural farming”? Top Image: This one accompanies the Anonymous WWF-Philippines story, “Mindanao Farmers Start Off the Year with Natural Farming Systems Technology” published online December 2019 [1] . The World Wide Fund, WWF, is a very credible international source of knowledge on conservation, right? Not this time. Very clearly, you can see the white plastic mulch covering the furrows and bare soil in-between them. Mr or Ms Anonymous, the plastic mulch is not natural. The soil not covered in-between furrows is not natural. So much soil bare, not natural, allowing so much natural water wasted because it had evaporated from the unprotected, hot soil surface! That is not conservation; that is not natural. The term “natural” is used here very carelessly . Aggie journalists, wake up! How come I noticed all that immediately when I saw the photograph? Because I learned my organic farming more t
Read more