Enhancing rice production sustainability and resilience via reactivating small water bodies for irrigation and drainage

Rice farming threatens freshwater resources and is increasingly vulnerable to drought under climate change. Traditional rice systems used small water bodies (ditches and ponds) to store drainage water and supply irrigation, but these have been abandoned in recent decades, increasing freshwater use and wastewater release and reducing resilience to extreme weather. The study proposes protecting and reactivating small water bodies for irrigation and drainage in China, which could decrease rice production water footprint (WF) by 30%, save 9% of national freshwater consumption, increase irrigation self-sufficiency from 3% to 31%, and alleviate yield loss in dry years by 2–3%. Redesigning irrigation-drainage systems can help address water scarcity challenges posed by climate change.