Two field experiments were conducted at Sakha Agricultural Research Station farm, Kafr Elshiekh Governorate during the two successive seasons 2005 and 2006 to study the effect of intermittent irrigation water and nitrogen fertilizer levels on rice yield and water requirements. The experiments were arranged in split plot design with four replicates where the intermittent irrigation treatments represent the main plots; (I1) soil saturation along the growing season, (I2) soil submergence with 2.5 cm depth in first half of growing season, then irrigation at soil saturation in the second half of the growing season, (I3) soil submergence with 2.5 cm depth along growing season, (I4) soil submergence with 5 cm depth in the first half of season, then irrigation at saturation in the second half of the growing season and (I5) soil submergence with 5 cm depth along the growing season. In this concern nitrogen fertilizer levels represent the sub main plots; where N1,N2, N3 and N4 were the application of nitrogen at 50%, 75%, 100% and 150% from the recommended dose, respectively.
The maximum rice yields of both grain and straw and its components were obtained with irrigation water depth of 5 cm.( I5 ) and nitrogen fertilizer of N4 ( 69 kg N/fed ) as well as their interaction. This was true for both growing seasons. The highest 1000- grain weight, and panicle length were recorded with above mentioned treatment, while the lowest values, were recorded with irrigation at saturation treatment ( I1) and nitrogen rate of 23 kg N/fed (N1) in both growing seasons. The highest amount of water applied for permanent field was recorded with 5 cm irrigation water depth along the season, in the two growing seasons, while the lowest value was recorded with irrigation at saturation treatment. The highest mean value of crop water use efficiency (CWUE)was recorded at 5 cm submergence depth along the season (I5), while the lowest mean value was obtained at saturation treatments along growing seasons (I1). The values of field water use efficiency (FWUE) had the opposite trend of (CWUE ).