The potential of intermittent irrigation for increasing rice yields, lowering water consumption, reducing methane emissions, and controlling malaria in African rice fields.

Rice production in sub-Saharan Africa has more than doubled in the last 3 decades and the potential to further develop rice-harvested areas is considerable. Several studies have demonstrated that the transformation of arable land into rice irrigation might create suitable habitats for large populations of disease vectors. Prominent among those are anopheline mosquitoes responsible for transmission of malaria. The method of irrigation on an intermittent basis during the rice-cropping calendar has gained renewed interest as a potentially effective malaria control strategy since the early 1980s. We review the experiences of the past 80 years with intermittent irrigation in the cultivation of rice. This method has been shown to reduce significantly the density of malaria vectors by curtailing their larval development. Furthermore, reduced methane emissions and water savings with at least equal yields were achieved in intermittently irrigated rice fields. We explore and discuss under what conditions intermittent irrigation might be beneficial in new rice-growing areas and identify steps that have to be taken to expand such programs in the future.