[morley]

The "how" took some reading to find. Here it is:

> They filled one field with water, as is common in Bali, but they drained the other, wetting the soil only when hairline cracks were spotted in the earth

[gumby]

I was told long ago that the water was needed to support the stalks (over the last 20K or so years humans have engineered edible grasses to have absurdly large seeds).

But I guess that isn't the case.

[lovemenot]

Definitely not the case. At least here in Japan, right now the seeds are large, but the fields are mostly not flooded. I believe the reason for flooding the seedlings is to crowd out weeds, which unlike rice are unable to get established.

[strken]

The rice grown in Australia[0] uses a higher water level in colder months to protect against the weather with thermal mass, rather than to physically support the stalks: https://www.agriculturaltoursriverina.com.au/how-is-rice-gro....

Bali has reliably warmer weather than the Riverina in the winter months, so at a guess insulation would be less relevant for Balinese farmers.

[0] Australian rice growing is good for comparison because it necessarily has to be more water efficient and is more heavily industrialised than Indonesia

[mdorazio]

Not sure where you heard that. Everything I've read (and a quick google search to confirm) indicates that rice fields are flooded because it's a cheap way to prevent weeds and pests from destroying crop yields.

[bell-cot]

Historically, that may have been an issue. But modern ("Green Revolution") rice varieties are mostly dwarf or semi-dwarf, which plausibly reduces that need.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-dwarf_IR36

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6824242/

[hackernewds]

I don't get the set up still. Is this the set up for a control experiment?