Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

EFFECT OF PUDDLING ON SURFACE LEVELS OF THE CONVENTIONALLY PUDDLED WET RICE FIELDS

G. Kusuma, P. Lavanya, N. Naresh, S.A. Radha, G. Anitha and A. Naveen

Abstract

Puddling is rice bed preparation technique followed since dawn of rice production. It plays very important role in the cultivation of rice in minimizing the water requirement by reducing the water losses through percolation. Puddled bed provides soft seed bed for rice seedlings. But the rice bed formed through conventional puddling practices is not precision leveled. Research revealed that there is continuous slope observed from one end to the other end of the field, which needs abundant amount of water to have a leveled ponded water surface. The study was conducted to know the effect of puddling on surface levels of the conventionally puddled wet rice fields. Totally six fields were studied for their variation in elevations before and after puddling. ANOVA two way and one way tests were conducted to know the significant effect. It was found that puddling significantly affected the level variations in the field and surface levels of the fields were not differed by type of puddling practices.