USING WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY TO REDUCE WATER USE IN RICE PRODUCTION

摘要

While rice is produced in some parts of the world in an upland, rainfed culture, almost all USproducedrnrice is grown with flood irrigation. In the dry-seeding system commonly used in thernmidsouthern US, the crop is usually flooded at approximately the V-4 (early tillering) growthrnstage and a continuous flood is maintained until after heading. The total amount of water used inrnrice production is quite large, and soil, fertilizers, and pesticides can be carried in the runoff fromrnagricultural fields. Flood depth affects most aspects of flooded rice production, and remoternmonitoring of the flood depth could be quite valuable to many producers. The objective of thisrnresearch is to develop and test a system for monitoring water depths in rice fields and alerting thernproducer so that less labor and energy is required to efficiently manage flood-irrigated rice. Arnprototype monitoring station was designed to measure water depth in a flooded rice field andrntransmit the information over a wireless link. A similar sensor and circuit performedrnsatisfactorily in a raingage in 2006. In 2007, prototype monitoring stations will be installed inrnproduction rice fields. Concurrently with sensor durability testing, tests will be conducted torndetermine the limits of the wireless communication system. With daily reports of the water statusrnin each paddy, field visits can be reduced. Over-pumping should be minimized by allowingrnbetter scheduling of field visits to stop the pump, and future systems should work with automaticrnpump control systems to stop the pump before runoff occurs.