TITLE:
Soil moisture, field-scale toposequential position, and slope effects on yields in irrigated rice (Oryza sativa L.) fields in Honduras
AUTHORS:
Kyle M. Earnshaw, Blair Orr
KEYWORDS:
Land Tenure; Prices; Comayagua; Soil Bunds; Precipitation
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.4 No.8A,
August
19,
2013
ABSTRACT: Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is an important cash
crop in Honduras. The availability of inexpensive irrigation in the study
area (Flores, La Villa de San Antonio, Comayagua) encourages rice farmers to
neglect prescribed methods of soil and water conservation, such land leveling,
puddling, and soil bunds. This study looked at the effect of failure to
mitigate water loss on sloping fields. Soil moisture (Volumetric Water Content)
was measured using a soil moisture probe after the termination of the first
irrigation within the tillering/vegetative, panicle emergence/flowering,
post-flowering/pre-maturation and maturation stages. Yield data were obtained by harvesting on 1 m2 plots in each soil moisture testing site. Data analyses looked at the relationship between yield and slope, soil
moisture, farmers, and toposequential position along transects. Toposequential
position influenced yields more than slope and soil moisture was not a significant
predictor of yields. Irrigation politics, high water inputs, and land tenure
were proposed as the major reasons for this result.