CLIMATE-SMART STRATEGIES OF WATER MANAGEMENT - COVER CROP SYSTEM TO ENHANCE PRODUCTIVITY, GREENHOUSE GAS MITIGATION, AND SOIL HEALTH IN RICE PRODUCTION

Our long-term goal of this proposed project is to develop and improve a more agronomically flexible and environment-friendly rice cropping system by integrating furrow-irrigated rice and cover crop production. It is expected that this integration will improve synergies among major ecosystem services of rice agroecosystems.Our specific objectives are1) To quantify and compare the agronomic benefits of furrowirrigated rice-cover crop production system with the common delayed flood rice production Project Narrative 3 system under different nitrogen fertilizer management, 2) To determine and evaluate the impacts of furrow-irrigated rice-cover crop production system on soil nutrient and carbon cycling as well as general soil health parameters, 3) To quantify and assess GHG reduction of furrow-irrigated rice-cover crop production system relative to the common delayed flood rice production system, 4) Modeling approaches to evaluate the GHG emissions and scoring soil health parameters under furrow-irrigated rice-cover crop production system and the common delayed flood rice production system.