Water scarcity and soil salinity are the main constrains for rice production in Egypt. Rice is the greatest consumer of water among all crops. A system of growing rice on raised beds or levees and system of rice intensification (intermittent irrigation system) where water is applied only in the furrows between beds, is hypothesized to reduce water input for rice. For water saving with considerable rice grain yield under newly reclaimed saline soil, two field experiments were conducted to innovate new rice planting technology at the experimental farm of El Sirw agriculture research station during two successive seasons of, 2011 and 2012. The system of rice cultivation technology were traditional transplanted with watering every four days as traditional methods (control treatment) up to 6 cm water depth, system of rice intensification (SRI) with intermittent irrigation system, dry rice seed on dry levees with watering as upland crop up to 30 days after sowing then shifting watering every four days up to 1 cm water depth and transplanted rice on levees with watering every four days up to 1 cm water depth.
The used variety in this experiment was Giza 178 (drought and salt tolerant Egyptian rice variety). The soil was clayey in texture with salinity level of 6.5& 6.0 dS/m in 2011 and 2012 seasons, respectively.
The obtained findings revealed that the different systems of rice planting and technology significantly showed variation in their impact on soil properties, yield and yield attributing characteristics of rice as well as saved water and water productivity in rice crop under such circumstances. SRI had the lowest values of soil EC, soluble cations and anions as well as bulk density in both seasons. Furthermore, SRI gave the highest values of yield and most of yield components as well as chlorophyll content in the leaf at heading without any significant differences with those obtained by Traditional transplanted one. The dry seed on dry levees gave the highest values of soil EC, soluble and anions as well as bulk density and, lowest value of pH in both seasons followed by transplanted on levees but less than the initial values of them. the system of dry seed on dry levees gave the lowest values of total applied water (8899.0 &8910.0 m3 / ha) in the first and second seasons, respectively followed by transplanted rice on levees and then SRI in both seasons. In addition, dry seed on dry levees had the highest values of water use efficiency and water saved (0.87 and 0.91 as well as 4290) for WUE, water saved in 2011 and 2012 seasons, respectively, followed by rice transplanted on levees and then SRI(Table9). Traditional rice transplanting of flat soil gave the highest values of total applied water (13618 &13629 m3 /ha) and the lowest values of water use efficiency (0.61 and 0.64) in the first and second seasons, respectively. Considering soil, yield and water saved , the SRI superior the rest of current investigated system of rice cultivation under present conditions.