In saturated soil culture (SSC), the soil is kept as close to saturation as possible, reducing the hydraulic head of the ponded water, which decreases the seepage and percolation flows. SSC means that a shallow irrigation is given to obtain about 1 cm of ponded water depth a day or so after the disappearance of ponded water.

On the average, SSC can decrease water input by 23% from continously flooded condition with nonsignificant yield reduction of 6%.The figure below shows that at saturated soil condition (no standing water), deep percolation losses is zero while in continously flooded condition percolation is high.

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Now that you understand how saturated soil culture saves water for irrigated rice, we can now proceed to the concepts of alternate wetting and drying.