The demand for fresh water is increasing progressively for the use of the community and during crop production. An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of low water input (LWI) on soil health, and crop yield. Soil chemical properties, physiological and yield parameters of rice plants which were grown under different water input treatments were examined. The treatments were as W1 (control; 5 cm flooding), W2 (1 cm flooding), W3 (saturated condition) and W4 (field capacity). Treatments were arranged according to the completely randomized design with five replications. The result revealed that LWI (e.g. saturation and 1 cm flooding) did not affect phytoavailability of nutrients in soil compared to the control. However, concentrations of nutrients such as nitrogen calcium, potassium, magnesium, cupper and manganese decreased with increasing plant age regardless of treatments except for phosphorus, zinc and iron. The redox potential (Eh) decreased significantly in control treatment than low water input condition. The soil pH showed moderately acidic to near neutral whilst the soil electrical conductivity (EC) remained same. The W4 treatment significantly reduced relative water content (RWC), light-and gas exchange-related parameters, yield parameters, harvest index (HI) and water use efficiency (WUE) compared to the LWI and control. This study suggests that low water input sustains rice production without affecting the soil health, physiological and yield parameters of rice plants.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.