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Salinity intrusion reduces grain yield in coastal paddy fields: case study in two estuaries in the Red River Delta, Vietnam

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Abstract

We characterized 63 fields sampled based on farmers’ perception of production risks within each commune (referred as either safe or at-risk fields), from the 3 communes in the 2 contrasting estuaries with different farming transformation in Red River Delta, Vietnam (Giao Huong and Giao Thien communes in Ba Lat estuary, Nam Dien communes in Day estuary), for 6 cropping seasons from 2015 to 2017. Rice yield was lower in Nam Dien (472 g/m2) than in Giao Huong (619 g/m2) and Giao Thien (662 g/m2), because of higher salinity levels in Day estuary than in Ba Lat estuary (8.0 ± 4.7 vs 2.9 ± 5.5‰), which led to higher salinity in standing water in the paddies (1.1 ± 0.3 vs 0.8 ± 0.3‰ in spring rice, 0.6 ± 0.3 vs 0.2 ± 0.2‰ in summer rice), and higher [Na+] in the surface soil (2.13 vs 1.7 meq/100 g). At-risk fields had higher water salinity and soil Na+, higher sand proportion, deeper standing water and lower yield than safe fields (558 vs 649 g/m2). Short duration inbred variety was most sensitive to increasing salinity, and farmers planted more hybrid varieties at at-risk fields in spring. Tall local glutinous cultivars with lower yield potential were planted at at-risk fields in summer with less N fertilizer. N fertilizer application rate was high (ca. 200 kg/ha/season) with low use efficiency. This study highlighted small-scale environmental variation and adaptation and yield reduction due to salinity in the two contrasting estuaries in the Red River Delta.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Nguyen Yen, Vietnam National University of Agriculture, for the selection of the survey site. This study was supported in part by a Grant in-Aid for Scientific Research (No. 16H05780) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan.

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  1. Asian Natural Environmental Science Center, University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Midoricho, Nishitokyo, 188-0002, Japan

    Luyen T. H. Phan & Akihiko Kamoshita

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  1. Luyen T. H. Phan
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Correspondence to Akihiko Kamoshita.

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Phan, L.T.H., Kamoshita, A. Salinity intrusion reduces grain yield in coastal paddy fields: case study in two estuaries in the Red River Delta, Vietnam. Paddy Water Environ 18, 399–416 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10333-020-00790-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10333-020-00790-y

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