Rice (Oryza Sativa L.) is the most important staple food crop in Asia, providing 35-80% of the total calorie intake [1]. In Asia, irrigated agriculture accounts for about 90% of total diverted fresh water and more than 50% of this is used to irrigate rice [2]. Due to the inherent nature of water application, lowland rice is often seen as an inefficient water user [3]. This is due to the fact that large proportion of the applied water is lost through deep percolation and seepage [2,4-6]. Sizable efforts have been made to reduce deep percolation especially from rice fields including: alternate wetting and drying (AWD) [5,7-9]; aerobic rice [10]; delayed application of continuous flooding [11] and puddling [6,12]. Berseem fodder (Trifolium alexandrinum L.) is a forage crop widely cultivated in northern India and the other parts of the world [13]. Specifically, in India it grows in winter from October to June and offers a good rotation with other summer crops such as rice, cotton, barely and maize.

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