Vol. 7, Issue 3, Part A (2025)

Rice is one of the major crops of Madurai District and cultivated during Samba and Thaladi season. The trial was taken up with TKM 13 paddy variety during samba season 2022 under irrigated condition in Thandalai village of Alanganallur block. Soil is Clay loam texture, low in nitrogen (240kg/ha), medium in phosphorus (12.5kg/ha) and high in potassium (250kg/ha). Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) is a water-conserving technology and thereby reduce their irrigation water use and conserve the water in rice fields without any yield reduction. In AWD, irrigation water is only applied a few days later the disappearance of the ponded water (Evapo-transpiration). The field is alternately flooded with water and without water that is AWD. The time intervals of irrigation schedule will vary among the types of soil, weather condition and crop growth stage. A practical solution to adopt AWD safely (without yield deterioration) is to monitor the depth of flooded water on the field using a ‘field water tube’ (‘Pani Pipe’). This study to examines the effects of the Field Water Tube Method, a water-conserving irrigation technique, on rice cultivation in Thandalai Village, Alanganallur Block, Madurai District, Tamil Nadu, India. The Field Water Tube Method of irrigation has lesser number of irrigations (15) whereas flood irrigation required more number of irrigations (21). This tendency of water conserving was accompanied by increases the yield attributing characters, and reduced pest and disease occurrence viz., bacterial leaf blight and other diseases.