Rice Irrigation - Soil and Water Management

Pictures of chickens, flowers, wheat, a boy looking through a magnifying glass, irrigation pipe, soybean pods, and fruits and vegetables.	Cooperative Extension Service





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Crop Irrigation
Rice

An abundant supply of good quality irrigation water is needed for optimum rice production. Knowledge of the quality and quantity of irrigation water is required for proper water management.

Determining Water Needs

A water supply is adequate for a given field if you can:

Flush in two to four days;
Flood in three to five days;
Maintain flood for the entire season.

Recommended pumping rates are based on the different soil textures (Table 1). Since most fields may have more than one soil texture, use these pumping rates as a general guide for determining needed pumping capacities as shown in Table 2.

Table 1. Recommended Pumping Rates for Different soils Textural Groups

(GPM/AC)

Soil Textural Group Minimum Desire

Silt Loam 10 15

Loam or Clay 15 20

Sandy 20 25

Table 2. General Guide for Maximum irrigated Acreage for Different Soil Textural Groups at Various Pump Capacities.
Pump Capacity	Irrigatable Acreage
(GPM)*	Silt Loam	Loam or Clay	Sandy
400	40	27	20
600	60	40	30
800	80	53	40
1000	100	67	50
1200	120	80	60
1400	140	93	70
1600	160	107	80
1800	180	120	90
2000	200	133	100
2200	220	147	110
2400	240	160	120
2600	260	173	130
2800	280	187	140
3000	300	200	150
Example: A 1,000 gpm pump could be used to irrigate a 100-acre silt loam field but only 50 acres if the field is a sandy loam. *GPM is abbreviation for gallons per minute.

Table 3 shows the operating time required to pump 1 inch of water on different size fields at different pumping rates. This is useful for estimating the amount of pumping time required for a given situation.

Table 3. Pumping Hours for 1 inch of Water on Different Acreages at Various Pump Capacities
Pump Capacity	Surface Acres
(GPM)	20	40	60	80	120	160	200	240
	Time (Hours)
200	45	91
400	23	45	68	91
600	15	30	45	60	91
800	11	23	34	45	68	91
1000		18	27	36	54	72	91
1200		15	23	30	45	60	76	91
1400		13	19	26	39	52	65	78
1600		11	17	23	34	45	57	68
1800			15	20	30	40	50	60
2000			14	18	27	36	45	54
2200			12	17	25	33	41	49
2400			11	15	23	30	38	45
2600				14	21	28	35	42
2800				13	19	26	32	39
3000				12	18	24	30	36
3200	Example: A well discharging 1,000 gpm will yield enough water to apply 1 inch to 120 acres in 54 hours.			11	17	23	28	34
3400					16	21	27	32
3600					15	20	25	30
3800					14	19	24	29
4000					14	18	23	27
4200						17	22	26
4400						17	21	25
4600						16	20	24
4800							19	23
5000							18	22

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Little Rock, Arkansas 72204 • USA
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Crop Irrigation Rice

Crop Irrigation
Rice