PEGADA HÍDRICA DO ARROZ CULTIVADO SOB DIFERENTES MANEJOS DE IRRIGAÇÃO

Rice is one of the most produced and consumed cereals in the world. The water management in rice farming is complex, and studies about the rice water footprint are less frequent than other cultures. The objective was to estimate the simplified water footprint of sprinkler and flood irrigated rice under different irrigation managements, taking as model the traditional methodology of water footprint estimation. The raw data used are from two experiments performed with the rice in the “Terras Baixas”, Experimental Station, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) Temperate Climate, located in Capao do Leao, RS, Brazil. In Experiment 1, three irrigation managements applied in the rice cropping season of 2011/2012 and four in the cropping season of 2012/2013 were analyzed. In Experiment 2, four irrigation managements in the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 cropping seasons were evaluated. The irrigation managements in the tensions of 20 and 10 kPa (sprinkler) and continuous irrigation (flood) presented smallest simplified water footprint. Comparing sprinkler and flood irrigation, it can be concluded that the flood method, under continuous irrigation, resulted in a smallest simplified water footprint.