Page 105 - EER-2-2

Explora: Environment

and Resource

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Pilot climate suitability investigation of alternate

wetting and drying irrigation practice for
improving water management in paddy rice

fields in Uganda

Edson Bagamba , Denis Bwire 1,2,3 * , Victo Nabunya , and Daniel Otim 1
1
1
1 Department of Agricultural Mechanization and Irrigation Engineering, Busitema University, Tororo,
Uganda
2 United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology,
3-8-1, Harumicho, Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan
3 RD and Business Development, Saerd-tech Consultants Limited, Kampala, Uganda

Abstract

Although susceptible to the negative consequence of climate change, rice production
using continuous flooding in paddy fields contributes significantly to food security
*Corresponding author:
Denis Bwire in Uganda. Alternate wetting and drying practice (AWD) is a sustainable irrigation
(bwiredenis@gmail.com) technique with water-saving potential without reducing yields. Adopting this
Citation: Bagamba E, Bwire D, technique requires technical knowledge and understanding of AWD’s influence and
Nabunya V, Otim D. Pilot climate its interaction with hydrological conditions – components of water balance including
suitability investigation of alternate percolation and precipitation in paddy fields. This study investigated the climate
wetting and drying irrigation
practice for improving water suitability of AWD for improving water management with paddy rice farming in
management in paddy rice fields in Uganda. The climate suitability analysis was conducted for Eastern Uganda considering
Uganda. Explora Environ Resour. the rainy (March – May) and dry seasons (June – July, November – February). First, we
2025;2(2):025040005.
doi: 10.36922/EER025040005 conducted a field survey from Kibimba and Doho, major rice growing schemes, and
obtained FAO-WaPOR climatic data for climate suitability analysis. Ecological niche
Received: January 22, 2025
modeling in QGIS and Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt), a machine learning model, was
1st revised: February 5, 2025 used to evaluate AWD viability in paddy fields. Then, a hydrological assessment of
2nd revised: March 5, 2025 paddy fields was performed using a water balance equation considering the ecological
requirements of the paddy rice, climatic conditions, and soil properties. Results from
3rd revised: March 12, 2025
the MaxEnt and Jackknife tests gave >92% and 90% high-performing metrics of area
4th revised: March 14, 2025 under the curves and percentage correctly classified, respectively. The significant
Accepted: March 17, 2025 environmental predictors identified include organic carbon stock (OCS) and available
water, with OCS as the most influential factor. The percolation rate of 1 – 5 mm/day was
Published online: March 28, 2025
unsuitable for AWD during the rainy season (when precipitation >20 mm/day since
Copyright: © 2025 Author(s). the increase in precipitation decreases percolation rates). Otherwise, AWD was suitable
This is an Open-Access article in dry and rainy seasons if the precipitation was <20 mm/day for all percolation rates,
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution and over 70% of significant areas in Eastern Uganda favor AWD practice. These findings
License, permitting distribution, provide valuable quantitative insights based on climate suitability evaluation of AWD
and reproduction in any medium, irrigation in Uganda to (i) upscale AWD technique for improving water management in
provided the original work is
properly cited. paddy fields and (ii) support Uganda’s rice production goal.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with Keywords: Paddy rice; Machine learning in agriculture; Ecological niche modeling;
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional Sustainable irrigation; Food security; Climate adaptation
affiliations.

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2025) 1 doi: 10.36922/EER025040005