Puddling is the

tillage Tillage is the agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shoveling, picking, mattock work, hoein ...

of rice paddies while flooded, an ancient practice that is used to prepare for

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

cultivation. Historically, this has been accomplished by dragging a weighted harrow across a flooded paddy field behind a buffalo or ox, and is now accomplished using mechanized approaches, often using a two-wheel tractor. Puddling reduces the percolation rates of water by churning the clay particles and making them close many of the soil pores. Puddling also has the consequences of converting soils into "...a structurally more or less homogeneous mass of ultimate particles.” Buehrer, T.F., and Rose, M.S., 1943. Studies in soil structure. V. Bound water in normal and puddled soils, Ariz. Agric. Exp. Sta. Tech. Bull, No. 100, pp. 155–218. Combined with

good agricultural practice Good agricultural practice (GAP) is a certification system for agriculture, specifying procedures (and attendant documentation) that must be implemented to create food for consumers or further processing that is safe and wholesome, using sustaina ...

s puddling has proven to be sustainable for many rice-rice systems. Yet the loss of aggregates in systems other than rice-rice (rice-maize, rice-wheat, etc.) proves to be much less sustainable resulting in loss of soil health and degradation. This has led to the development alternative soil management systems where the minimum soil disturbance via minimum tillage,

strip-till Strip-till is a conservation system that uses a minimum tillage. It combines the soil drying and warming benefits of conventional tillage with the soil-protecting advantages of no-till by disturbing only the portion of the soil that is to contain th ...

and no-till practices can not only stop a soil's degradation but also generally improve the soil's health ( regenerative agriculture).

References

External links

BIS specifications for Puddlers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Puddling (Agriculture) Agricultural terminology Rice production