Water in rice production

My advocacy essay will address a proposal providing three solutions, addressed by B.A.M. Bouman, to decrease water usage in rice production in order to avoid a water shortage predicted to hit Asia in 2025 that will lead to famine. Two solutions involve changing to soil management in rice production to decrease water usage: saturate soil culture (SSC) and alternate wetting and drying (AWD). In SSC, farmers use shallow irrigation methods, thus only 1 centimeter of water is used to flood the crops after the disappearance of standing water (in comparison to 5-10 centimeters in regular irrigation systems). In AWD, farmers use 2-5 centimeters of water to flood the crops after a set number of days have passed after the disappearance of the standing water. The third solution Bouman proposed involves a completely different system of growing rice: aerobic rice production. With aerobic rice production, farmers grow rice without standing water; to provide water to the crops, sprinkler systems or drip irrigation is adopted. Though these solutions do not increase yield, they do reduce water impute which will prevent a water shortage from occurring in Asia. Introducing hybrid rice is a solution that will increase yield, yet this new technology does not reduce water impute and will not be effective as the sole method of providing rice to a growing population since water is critical for future generations. Thus, adopting SSC, AWD, and aerobic rice, in areas appropriate to that method in price, climates, and land, are the best solutions to decrease water impute in rice production.