AERTIME: CALIBRATING AWD IRRIGATION TIMING FOR TEXAS RICE

Project GoalsThis project seeks to ensure the long-term sustainability of rice production in Texas through substantial reduction in the quantity of water required to achieve comparable grain yields while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. By inserting aeration events into the production season, this project will evaluate the water savings and effect on grain yield in rice. The long-term goal of the project is to increase adoption of water saving practices in Texas and arm rice producers with real knowledge of their impact on climate change mitigation. The project will measure reductions in CH4 emissions in intermittently aerated fields compared to continuously flooded rice fields. This aeration practice has been called alternate wet drying (AWD) irrigation. However, there are concerns among farmers that the introduction of aerobic conditions may also result in fertilizer nitrogen (N) chemical transformations in soil that can lead to losses of N fertilizer use efficiency, and perhaps of more concern, increased emissions of N2O. Therefore, short term goals are to develop better information on these processes that may be counter to climate smart intentionsSupporting Objectives The project goals will be supported by research and extension objectives, and an objective that integrates the two by directly involving farmers and other stakeholders in the development and discovery processes. These are:to evaluate the effect of AWD on water savings, CH4 emission reduction, yield, and non-target effects on N and C cycling and N2O emissions,to raise awareness and increase knowledge of AWD and its potential for positive and/or negative effects to farmers at the county level, andto investigate the net reduction in water use and GHG emissions due to AWD implementation in commercial-scale fields in collaboration with rice producers in Texas.The research objective (Obj. 1) will take place on two research stations operated by Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension. One at Beaumont, TX and one at Eagle Lake, TX (Figure 1). Controlled small plot research to evaluate the effect of AWD on water savings, CH4 emission reduction, yield, and non-target effects on N and C cycling and N2O emissions will be conducted under this objective. An Extension objective (Obj. 2) will take the shape of outreach to farmers at the county level early in the project to raise awareness and increase knowledge of AWD and its potential for positive and/or negative effects. As the project progresses, continued meetings with farmers will be used to communicate progress and provide research updates, including Extension publications and videos, and research updates at field days at both the Beaumont and Eagle Lake stations. An integrated objective (Obj. 3) will take the shape of first forming a project advisory committee from stakeholders in the rice industry. These will include stakeholder farmers, millers, policy makers, and industry members (please see Letters of Support). This committee will provide input on the first two objectives throughout and receive regular updates on the progress of the project. The second major aspect of objective 3 will be to enlist farmers to participate in on-farm cooperative research trials with rice producers enthusiastic to collaborate (please see Letters of Support). The data from the on-farm research will be managed to be defensible for peer review publications and will be leveraged to perform edge of field demonstrations for local peer farmers.