JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

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Water requirements of paddy fields in the Gilan Province are provided for by a large irrigation network including Sepidrud reservoir dam, Tarik diversion dam, Fumanat network, Sangar diversion dam, and Sangar right and left canals. Because of the deposition of sediments in the Sepidrud reservoir, its capacity has been reduced profoundly. To overcome this problem, sediments are flushed in the second half of each year. The sediments coming from erodible surfaces of the Sepidrud watershed area out flowing from the dam in the spring, and the deposited sediments in the Sepidrud river in the second half of each year are a great hazard for the irrigation network. The objective of this research is to study the effect of the sediments on Sepidrud network. In this research, sediment data from the hydrometric station near Sepidrud dam were analyzed. Sediment samples were collected by a hand sampler (type DH-48) from Tarik and Sangar diversion dams, upper and lower ends of Sangar desilting basin, BP₄ and SP₃ canals, and field ditches and drains. Water discharge was measured by a current meter. Deposited materials in irrigation structures were sampled for grading. The results from this study indicate that the Sepidrud river and Tarik diversion dam deposit sediments at low discharges, but at high river discharges these sediments were found to he erodible. Average efficiencies of left and right desilting basins of Sangar diversion dam were 15.3% and 11.2%, respectively. The area located in Fumanat section, which receives water from Tarik diversion dam, requires desilting structures. The irrigation structures of the network are in danger of sediments. The main and the secondary canals, compared with 3rd and 4th order canals, have less settled sediments in them.

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Studies on benefits from innovations (technical change) have mostly been performed within the framework of competitive markets. These studies indicate that if the market structure under study is not competitive, determination of technical change benefits within a competitive framework may yield distorted or biased results for different groups. Considering the noncompetitive market structure of tomato in Khorasan Province, benefits from applying biological innovation for farmers, processors and the society as a whole were estimated. The results indicate that under noncompetitive conditions in the tomato market in Khorasan Province, and as a result of the processors’ market power in buying tomato, the potential benefits of utilizing hybrid varieties have reduced for both farmers and the society by about 58 and 12.5 percent, respectively. It may naturally be concluded that farmers’ incentives to adopt hybrid varieties are attenuated because of the tomato noncompetitive market.

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Cultivation of a second crop in paddy fields of Guilan province is a strategy for optimum use of land, supporting family economy and increasing oil-seed production. However, this is impeded under high rainfall and waterlogging conditions. To enhance second-crop cultivation in paddy fields, surface drainage is inevitable. The surface drainage practices should be performed with minimum costs, least time span and least variations of the land. In the present research, longitudinal surface drains were constructed with a spacing of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 m (depth of 20 cm), with and without 1-m lateral drains (depth of 10 cm) in Rice Research Institute, Rasht, Iran. The experiment was conducted in a complete randomized block design with three replications. Canola (Brassica napa), variety PF, was cultivated as a second crop after rice. The results showed that the effects of drain spacing on seed yield, days to maturity, number of plants per m², and also the effects of lateral drainage on seed yield, plant height, residual N, days to maturity, and number of plants per m² are significant (P<0.01). Highest yield (2493 kg/ha) was obtained from longitudinal drains 4 m apart, with lateral drainage drain spacing of 6 and 2 m had acceptable yields, too (2241 and 1817 kg/ha, respectively). For treatments without lateral drainage, 2-m drain spacing had the highest yield (1324 kg/ha). Considering all the expenses for drainage construction, it was found that net benefit of longitudinal drain spacing of 4 and 6 m was twice the costs. Since the rainfall in Nov., Dec., and Jan., 2000, was higher than the 20-year average rainfall of the same months, it was concluded that the results of this experiment may be recommended in the years with a rainfall less than the year 2000.

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Puddling is the most common method of land preparation for lowland rice cultivation. The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of various intensities of puddling on percolation rate, water retention by soil and the amount of water used for different puddling intensities in three dominant soil textures of paddy fields in Guilan province. Undisturbed soil samples were taken from 3 different soils including silty clay, clay loam and loam, with 3 replications. The soil samples were puddled by a laboratory apparatus with different intensities. The results showed that the low puddling intensity treatment caused a 29.3, 32.4 and 36% reduction of percolation rate in silty clay, silty loam and loam textures, respectively. Increasing puddling intensity from low to medium reduced percolation rate significantly, but high intensity was not effective. Soil moisture characteristic curves of all three soils showed that water retention was increased by puddling treatments. Water retention in silty clay was higher than the other two soils. The high intensity treatment needed more water than low intensity for puddling. Increasing puddling intensity from medium intensity to high intensity caused 15.4, 14.1 and 16.3% increase in the amount of water required for puddling in silty clay, silty loam and loam textures, respectively. Generally, in all the three studied soil textures, the amount of water used for high-intensity puddling was more than medium-intensity puddling, while it had no significant effect on water percolation rate and soil water retention.

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The common method of irrigating rice in paddy fields of Iran, like most countries, is flooded irrigation. The water required in this method is too much. However, because of water shortage in recent years, and malfunctioning of irrigation systems, it is needed to use water in a reasonable way and increase water use efficiency. Therefore, it is necessary to know water loss amounts at the paddy fields. The deep percolation (DP) was measured by closed- and open-bottom rings in 4 locations, and 7 sites at each location, of paddy fields in Somae-Sara city, Guilan province. These locations were selected on the base of different physiographic units. The average DP of these locations was also monitored during plant growth season. The measurements were performed twice a week. Results showed that the rate of DP varied during the season, and could take a positive or negative value. The most important factors of these variations were the lateral seepage (from surrounding rice fields) and the high perched groundwater table in paddy fields.

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Water management in cracked paddy soils is an important issue in rice cultivation. In order to study organic matter and zeolite effect and their interaction on moisture conditions and hydraulic and physical properties of paddy soils, the organic matter (rice straw) at four levels (0, 8, 16 and 24 tons per hectare), zeolite at four levels (0, 0.5, 1 and 1.5 percent ), and also moisture stages of soil at 5 levels were selected. This experiment was conducted in Rice Research Institute of Iran. Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) was used to study the effect of treatments on different subjects. The amount of moisture, bulk density and the distance of soil from the wall of container were measured in a 4-month period. The obtained results showed that the interaction effects of organic matter and zeolite on soil moisture content were statistically significant at one percentage level. Addition of plant residues caused an increase in soil moisture weight and reduction in bulk density compared to the control treatment. It was also found that soil moisture content and bulk density were highly correlated. Bulk density of control treatment ranged from 0.75 to1.7 gr/cm3, while with addition of 1.5 % crop residue the bulk density ranged from 0.7 to 1.3gr/cm3. Overall results show that crop residues are effective in reduction of crack parameters of soil , but zeolite cannot be effective although it causes more maintenance of soil moisture.

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Intermittent irrigation of paddy fields with long intervals can cause cracks in heavy soils, facilitate loss of water and finally damage the crop. This study was carried out in order to investigate the cracking trend and some other factors affecting soil cracking in four different physiographical areas of paddy field. The study areas were Rasht, Shanderman, Astaneh and Khomam in Guilan province. The experiment was carried out in paddy fields with transplanted rice by determining the physical properties relevant to cracking behavior after irrigation withdrawal in the reproductive stage. Soil analysis showed that despite similarity in type of dominant minerals, the linear expansion coefficients of Rasht and Khomam soils were higher than those of two other areas. In addition, there was a significant relationship between crack dimensions and volumetric soil water content and clay content. Furthermore, the temporal variation in study of crack development (depth, width and density) showed that they varied in different areas and were affected by volumetric soil water content and the groundwater depth. In addition, the depth of cracks in all soils did not reach the hard pan. All the investigated soils showed a definite threshold for width and depth of cracks for 20-25 days after irrigation withdrawal. After this period, specific values for width (about 3.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 5.0 cm) and depth of cracks (20, 25, 17, and 27 cm) were registered for Astaneh, Khomam, Shanderman and Rasht, respectively

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The common method of puddling is using a conventional tiller which requires long time of soil operations.In this study, the effects of tillage equipment on moisture characteristic curve of a paddy soil were investigated. The treatments included tillage equipment (T1: conventional tiller, T2: rotary puddler, T3: cone puddler, T4: tractor mounted rotivator) and number of puddlings (P1: puddling once, P2: puddling twice, P3: three times'puddling and P4: four times'puddling). The results showed that at saturation point, tractor mounted rotivator presented the highest moisture content. At field capacity and permanent wilting point, the cone puddler showed the highest moisture value. The two newly made units held more moisture and saved water. In different tillage equipment, increasing the number of puddling reduced soil moisture. Available moisture in the soil without tillage (control) was less than in soils under rotary puddler and cone puddler.

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